ALTHOUGH SIGNIFICANT progress is being made worldwide in the search for a cure for Alzheimer's disease, there are still many challenges to be addressed, according to an Irish researcher.
Dr Cora O'Neill, senior lecturer and principal investigator at the Department of Biochemistry at University College Cork (UCC), said huge progress had been made in understanding the disease over the past 30 years, but it would be unfair to say there was immediate hope of a cure.
She said: "There is a huge research focus on Alzheimer's disease worldwide because of our ageing demographics. By the year 2030, almost a million people in Ireland will be over 65 and the older we get, the more likely we are to get the disease.
"There is so much attention being focused on trying to understand the biology of the disease and lots of different drug trials being carried out.
"We also need to take a more holistic approach to the disease by providing social, psychological and environmental supports and not just throwing a drug at it."
Speaking at a recent public lecture in UCC, Dr O'Neill explained that Alzheimer's was a progressive degenerative disorder of the brain that was first described by Alois Alzheimer just over 100 years ago. Most of the research into Alzheimer's is centred on gaining more understanding of deposits called "plaques" and "tangles" which build up in the brain of the patient as symptoms develop.
"Although we have learned a lot in the past 30 years in terms of the components of these plaques and tangles, we still do not really know what causes them to build up and the mechanism by which they kill the nerve cells controlling memory and higher mental function," said Dr O'Neill.
She explained that research into rare inherited forms of Alzheimer's disease was pointing to the build-up of an ameloid protein in the brain as a primary event in killing brain cells when combined with another protein called tau.
"From the drug treatment point of view, we are trying to stop these pathologies from building up as existing treatments don't do this. Most of the exploratory work is to see what would happen if we could stop the build-up of these plaques and tangles in the brain. If we achieve that, we'll have made a major advance," Dr O'Neill said.
Meanwhile, almost two thirds of carers spend 14 hours per day or more looking after a person with Alzheimer's disease or dementia, new research published yesterday has claimed.
The data emerged as part of an initiative launched by Lundbeck Ireland and the Carers Association of Ireland. It features a new booklet providing advice and support for those with Alzheimer's disease and is available free by calling 01-4689800.
