HEALTH TIPS - Thursday, November 2, 2006
"News That Keeps You Healthy"
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Blood test may diagnose Alzheimer's
LONDON, -- British scientists say they are moving closer
to finding a blood test that can detect the existence of
Alzheimer's disease before it becomes symptomatic. Scien-
tists at King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry
report finding levels of two types of protein found in
the blood can indicate an increased risk of having the
disease, The Scotsman reported Monday. Tests found an
increased level of those proteins was present only with
patients suffering from the disease. The researchers say
their discovery might eventually lead to a blood test to
diagnose the likelihood of developing the disease in
later life. The study appears in the journal Brain.
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Enzyme involved in allergic diseases found
RICHMOND, Va., -- A U.S. research team says it has identi-
fied an enzyme involved in allergic reactions, possibly
providing a new target for the treatment of such maladies.
The scientists from Virginia Commonwealth University, the
Hospital for Special Surgery and Weill Cornell Medical
College in New York note allergic diseases such as asthma
and hay fever afflict about 30 percent of people in the
developed world -- and allergic reactions are the sixth
leading cause of chronic disease in the United States. The
team has demonstrated, for the first time, the role of a
proteolytic enzyme called ADAM10 that releases a major
allergy regulatory protein from the surface of cells and,
thereby, promotes a stronger allergic response. "Our re-
search, for the first time, may represent a treatment
strategy to prevent, rather than simply control, IgE-med-
iated allergy," said VCU Professor Daniel Conrad. IgE is
an antibody known to trigger Type I allergic disease.
"Understanding ADAM10's role in allergic disease makes it
a potential target for the design of drugs to treat asthma
and allergic disease." The research appears online in the
journal Nature Immunology.
Scientists work on antiaging drugs
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., -- Researchers in Massachusetts are test-
ing drugs that mimic the properties of a substance in red
wine called resveratrol that is believed to combat aging.
Preliminary tests show resveratrol has the same effect as
cutting calorie intake by a third which scientists say
boosts the life spans animals by as much as 40 percent,
The Wall Street Journal reports. The focus of coming up
with a drug that has the same effects as resveratrol is
not to extend life but rather to develop therapies for
diseases since the Food and Drug Administration doesn't
recognize aging as a problem. However, if a drug can re-
tard aging, it might delay the onset and possibly the
progression of age-related diseases, says University of
Illinois epidemiologist S. Jay Olshansky. Interest in re-
sveratrol began three years ago when a group at Harvard
reported that it boosted the life of yeast cells by 70
percent. Today, Cambridge-based Sirtris Pharmaceuticals
and Elixir Pharmaceuticals are among companies working
on development of drugs that mimic calorie restriction. |
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