One Cause Of Alzheimer's People's brains that seem to lose their memory, a form of dementia, are shown to have a little odd area in their brain of a gummy protein called beta-amyloid. A question has been around for a long time as if this a side effect or the cause of this dreaded disease. In addition, there is a protein named tau that a few researchers believe this is the cause of dementia. There are more than one kind of beta-amyloid protein and scientists, today, have taken rats and injected them with one kind of the beta-amyloid protein and have obtained symptoms of Alzheimer's. With injections in the rats with the other different kinds of the protein have not produced the disease. This may be the reason some people with the beta-amyloid protein don't show the symptoms of the disease. The discoveries by a group directed by Dr. Ganesh M. Shankar and Dr. Dennis J. Selkoe of Harvard Medical School were announced in Sunday's online edition of the journal 'Nature Medicine'. This group of scientists obtained the brains from people who had donated their bodies to medicine and used brain extracts. Different kinds of soluble beta-amyloid were used on the brains of rats. The proteins each had random molecules with water-insoluble cores of the brain plaque and the results were no effects from any of these. The only form was a two molecule that made features of Alzheimer's in the rats reported by the researchers. While the rats had behaviors that were new, after injection, they showed damaged memory functions. Mice were also used in the study and showed brain cells were reduced by some 47%. The effect observed was the beta-amyloid did affect the biological process which is the links among the cells for providing a connection among them. Dr. Marcelle Morrison-Bogorad, director of the division of neuroscience at the National Institute on Aging, which helped fund the research says for first time the research showed the effect of a particular type of beta-amyloid in the brain. In a phone interview she claims that it was surprising that only one of the 3 types had an effect. She also claims the findings may help justify the discovery of plaque in the brains and yet these individuals do not develop dementia. Doctors, for a while now, were baffled by the fact that they found brains with heavily glazed beta-amyloid and yet the patient did not have Alzheimer's. Dr. Morrison-Bogorad says a lot of work needs to be done to answer why 2 kinds of beta-amyloid do not cause Alzheimer's symptoms and only one is damaging. Dr. Richard J. Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging, said that "while more research is needed to replicate and extend these findings, this study has put yet one more piece into place in the puzzle that is Alzheimer's." Daily Updates of Health News Free headlines provided by Fresh Content.net ALZHEIMER'S PRODUCTS STORE ALZHEIMER'S BOOK STORE Web www.greatalzheimertips.com jim ellison enterprises 342 broken arrow floresville, texas 78114 Disclaimer