IIT Guwahati researchers claim new method to delay onset of Alzheimer's

GUWAHATI: Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati have claimed they have worked out a method which could help reduce short-term memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
In a media statement released on Wednesday, the team proposed the application of a low-voltage electric field, and the use of ‘trojan peptides’ to arrest aggregation of neurotoxic molecules - which are associated with short-term memory loss due to Alzheimer’s disease - in the brain.

The team led by Prof. Vibin Ramakrishnan and Prof. Harshal Nemade had found last year that application of a low-voltage, safe electrical field can reduce the formation and accumulation of these molecules - called amyloid beta peptides - thereby reducing aggregation.

“Upon exposure to electric field, we could retard the degeneration of nerve cells to an extent of 17 – 35 %. Objectively, this would translate to about 10 years delay in the onset of the disease”, said Dr. Ramakrishnan.

The researchers then took their work further and explored the possibility of using ‘Trojan peptides’ to "impede aggregation of amyloid peptide, arrest formation of toxic fibrillar assemblies, and reduce poisoning of nerve cells" that leads to memory loss.

They published their studies in reputed journals such as the ACS Chemical Neuroscience and RSC Advances of Royal Society of Chemistry and they will test on animal models and clinical trials before suggesting it as a new therapeutic approach.

“Our research has provided a different path that may extend the onset of the Alzheimer’s disease," said Dr Nemade.

India has the third highest number of Alzheimer’s patients in the world, after China and US, with more than four million people falling prey to the memory loss associated with it. While current treatments only alleviate some of the symptoms of the disease, there is no disruptive therapeutic approach yet.

Dr Ramakrishnan, who participates in worldwide efforts at finding a cure, pointed out that about a hundred potential drugs failed between 1998 and 2011.

The scientists were assisted by research scholars Dr. Gaurav Pandey and Jahnu Saikia in their work, said the release from IIT Guwahati.