March 31, 2017 – More Than One

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Anchor lead: Is low glucose the only way to Alzheimer’s disease? Elizabeth Tracey reports

P38 is the unglamorous name of a protein now known to be involved in Alzheimer’s disease development, a new study concludes, showing it to be involved in glucose levels and insulin in the brain.  Constantine Lyketsos, an Alzheimer’s expert at Johns Hopkins, says there are a host of other ways to develop this common type of dementia.

Lyketsos: Alzheimer’s is not one disease. Another final common pathway seems to be a genetically determined overproduction of beta-amyloid, which causes Alzheimer’s disease, and those people whether or not they have glucose deprivation probably doesn’t matter too much, they’re going to get Alzheimer’s disease. So then shift gears and start thinking what are the other final common pathways that in some people will be entirely the underlying cause or might add with other final common pathways this might well be one of them. :29

Lyketsos says involvement of p38 is a great target for drug development and may help stave off or delay Alzheimer’s disease development for some. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.