Dementia is an umbrella term a range of illnesses and symptoms, which primarily or secondarily affect the brain, making it harder to remember things or think as clearly as before. Dementia can affect every area of human thinking, feeling and behaviour, and often the condition and symptoms will differ between person to person depending on which area of their brain is damaged. Dementia can be an exceedingly stressful condition for both patient and their family, as it can often seem as if the patient is becoming a different person or they may no longer remember who they are.

Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most frequently occurring causes of dementia, affecting up to 500,000 people in the UK. It is believed to be caused by a build up of two particular proteins, amyloid and tau, in the brain. This build up then causes damage to our brain and nerve cells, which leads to symptoms including reduced memory, disorientation, increased confusion and changes to mood. There is ongoing research investigating why these proteins build up in the brain and how they cause damage. The most common form of Alzheimer’s is called late-onset Alzheimer’s and affects people over the age of 65.  However, it’s thought that around 4% of people with Alzheimer’s are under 65 and this figure is apparently set to increase with strong correlations to stress and obesity.

Unfortunately, there is not yet a cure for Alzheimer’s but there are medications and treatments that can help with some of the more distressing symptoms such as mood/personality changes as well as depression and anxiety. Yesterday, however, Glasgow University announced that they have made a promising breakthrough in the treatment of Alzheimer’s. Following research conducted on mice, they have discovered that a protein called IL-33 has helped reverse Alzheimer’s disease damage along with the associated decline in memory and changes to mood.

Professor Eddy Liew, who co-directed the research, said:

“Alzheimer’s disease currently has an urgent unmet clinical need. We hope that our findings can eventually be translated into humans.

“IL-33 is a protein produced by various cell types in the body and is particularly abundant in the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord). We found that injection of IL-33 into the mice rapidly improved their memory and cognitive function to that of the age-matched normal mice within a week.”

IL-33 appears to work by mobilising immune cells in the brain to surround the build ups of protein, digesting them and then reducing the number and size of the build-ups.

In addition, the IL-33 treatment worked by inhibiting the inflammation in the brain tissue, which has been shown to increase the rate of protein formation. Therefore IL-33 not only helps to clear the build-ups already formed but also prevent the build-up in the first place.‌‌

Professor Liew added:

“The relevance of this finding to human Alzheimer’s is at present unclear. But there are encouraging hints. For example, previous genetic studies have shown an association between IL-33 mutations and Alzheimer’s disease in European and Chinese populations. Furthermore, the brain of patients with Alzheimer’s disease contains less IL-33 than the brain from non-Alzheimer’s patients.

“Exciting as it is, there is some distance between laboratory findings and clinical applications. There have been enough false ‘breakthroughs’ in the medical field to caution us not to hold our breath until rigorous clinical trials have been done. We are just about entering Phase I clinical trial to test the toxicity of IL-33 at the doses used. Nevertheless, this is a good start.”

For a disease that affects so many lives, we hope you will join the Global Health Team in congratulating Glasgow University in their breakthrough and wishing them the best for their future clinical trials.

If you are concerned about Alzheimer’s disease or dementia then you can visit: http://www.alzscot.org/ to find out more information.