Australian scientists achieve major Alzheimer’s breakthrough 26 August 2010 Australian scientists have achieved a major breakthrough by finding the causes of Alzheimer's disease at a cellular level. This ground-breaking new study paves the way for identifying a potential therapy for the disease. The findings have been published in the prestigious US scientific journal Cell. The research team, from the University of Sydney's Brain and Mind Research Institute (BMRI), was led by Professor Jürgen Götz and Dr Lars Ittner. Their work shows how two key proteins interact to trigger the brain degeneration known as Alzheimer's. A protein called TAU affects and mediates the toxicity of amyloid-b, which together with TAU causes the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. Professor Götz said that this significant breakthrough by Dr Ittner and their team has implications for how the disease develops and how it may be treated. In 2001, Professor Götz published a milestone work in Science, which showed that the two hallmark proteins, amyloid-b and TAU, act together in disease. Their exact connection remained unexplained however. "It was always clear to me that finding this link could be the key to understanding the disease," Professor Götz said. Alzheimer’s is the most prevalent of all diseases which involve memory loss, with one person in 85 around the world expected to be affected by Alzheimer’s by the year 2050. The main clinical feature of Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive loss of cognition, accompanied by aggression and mood disturbance, leading eventually to patients being institutionalized. At the present time, the disease is incurable. More information |