Progress Toward A More Targeted Treatment Of Alzheimer's Disease

Leuven, Belgium - Scientists from the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) connected with the Catholic University of Leuven have shed a little more light on Alzheimer's disease. They've gone deeply into the operation of γ-secretase, a crucial factor in the origin of the disease. Their research has revealed that the action of γ-secretase is not homogeneous - as previously assumed - but quite differentiated. This discovery opens up perspectives for new medicines that will have fewer undesired side effects than current medicines do.

Alzheimer's disease, a degenerative disease that gradually and progressively destroys brain cells, affects between 50% and 70% of all cases of dementia and is therefore the major form of dementia. About 100,000 people suffer from this disease in Belgium. The damage caused to memory and mental functioning makes it one of today's most frightening syndromes. In particular, the first realization of the loss of any sense of reality is extremely difficult to accept. So, science continues to search feverishly for ways to treat the disease.