Promising New Treatment for Alzheimer's Disease

Despite the advanced medical technology we have today, an effective treatment for Alzheimer's has not yet been found that not only helps slow the progression of the disease but also restores the brain to its previous state. However, a study conducted at the University of California, Los Angeles, and published in August 2024 revealed a surprising discovery. Researchers managed to synthesize a molecule called DDL-920 that restored the cognitive abilities of mice with Alzheimer's, and this discovery might significantly change the way the disease is treated. Not only could we slow its progression, but also restore and repair the brain, erasing the harmful effects of Alzheimer's disease.

 How does one molecule help restore cognitive abilities? 

Imagine your brain as a city, and the memory and thinking abilities are powered by an electrical system that lights up this city. Alzheimer's disease is a problem that disrupts the electrical flow of that system and causes electrical shorts, leading to memory loss and confusion, just like what would happen if some traffic lights and streetlights in the city were to go out.

Most existing treatments for Alzheimer's are aimed at cleaning the "junk" that accumulates in the brain (plaque) and causes these power outages, but the problem is that they don't address the power outages themselves. In contrast, the newly discovered molecule, named DDL-920, can actually do this, like an electrician called to fix the electrical short, and thanks to it, the future of Alzheimer's treatment looks much more promising. 

"There is really nothing like this on the market or in the experimental field, and no other treatment has shown the ability to do this," says Dr. István Módy, a professor of neurology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the lead researcher. Indeed, even the modern drugs recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), such as Lecanemab, which was approved for use in the U.S. in 2023, can only clean the plaque buildup in the brain but cannot repair the damage it caused. "These drugs may leave a brain without plaque, but all the pathological changes in the wiring mechanisms of nerve cells remain damaged," says Dr. Módy, meaning they do not address the cognitive problems that have already occurred.

The results in experiments look very promising 

The brain sends electrical signals at different rates to activate and deactivate various functions within it, much like how traffic lights work. Gamma wave oscillations are the ones that influence cognitive processes and working memory – the type of memory that helps us remember phone numbers, for example – and Alzheimer's patients who experience symptoms such as memory impairment show a decrease in gamma wave oscillations in their brains.

In other studies, attempts were made to restore memory by increasing gamma wave oscillations with the help of external aids, such as magnetic frequencies, but without success. However, in the current study, there is a significant breakthrough. Instead of trying to influence gamma wave oscillations using external aids, the researchers decided to try to influence the brain from within – with the help of molecules – and the molecule DDL-920 succeeded in the task. 

In lab experiments, mice with Alzheimer's symptoms and healthy mice were tested, and they learned to navigate a maze with cues meant to lead them to the exit hole. The mice suffering from Alzheimer's were given a dose of the DDL-920 molecule twice a day for two weeks, and as a result, they showed remarkable improvement in their ability to navigate the maze and find the exit, functioning just as well as healthy mice in the same maze. 

Moreover, no negative side effects were observed from the treatment with the molecule, so researchers speculate that treatment with it will be safe for humans as well. However, more human trials are still needed to confirm this theory. If the trials show success at the same level, the molecule will allow effective treatments not only for Alzheimer's patients but also for those with schizophrenia, depression, and people on the autism spectrum.

Is this really a miracle cure for Alzheimer's? 

Dr. Módy claims that this mechanism has never been tested and studied before, so it represents a new direction that researchers have not yet tried, and it has a high chance of becoming the leading treatment for Alzheimer's patients. As mentioned, many more trials are still needed on the subject, but researchers are very optimistic. We hope to hear more developments on this soon, and we would be happy to discover if, in the near future, there will indeed be an available treatment that can restore the brain function of Alzheimer's patients to its former state. If so, we may be able to say goodbye to the damage caused by the disease and hello to a new era where "Alzheimer's" is no longer a scary word, but simply another disease that can be treated and its symptoms managed with a simple and quick treatment.

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Want to Improve Your Memory? A Decade-Long Stanford Study Suggests You Should Stop Doing This 1 Thing

Do you ever have trouble keeping track of all the things racing through your mind? Do you ever feel like your life would fall apart without to-do lists, calendars, and constant reminders?

Most of us believe the subtle shifts in memory we experience are the result of aging. The older we get, we think, the harder we have to work to encode new memories.

Researchers at the Stanford Memory Lab, however, found that aging isn't the only factor that diminishes what psychologists call “working memory”: our ability to process and store information. Another key factor is the amount of time we spend multitasking.

In the modern attention economy, we’re all guilty of this habit. We all have moments where we're on a conference call while texting, emailing, and sneaking an occasional peek at the news or social media. When this becomes a way of life, however, multitasking can begin to diminish cognitive performance and memory.

After examining over a decade of data, these Stanford researchers found that “heavy” multitaskers significantly underperformed “light” multitaskers on tasks that required working memory and sustained attention. Multitasking, in other words, went hand-in-hand with a diminished ability to process memories and sustain a single point of focus. 

Why does the amount of time we spend multitasking have such a negative impact on memory?

Stanford psychologist Anthony Wagner theorizes that “reduced working memory occurs in heavy media multitaskers because they have a higher probability of experiencing lapses of attention.” The more time you spend watching TV while emailing and surfing social media, in other words, the more difficult it becomes to sustain your attention. Instead of building concentration, multitasking reinforces the mindset that psychologist Linda Stone famously calls “continuous partial attention.” It turns this scattered state of attention into a habit.

So how can we reverse the damaging impact of multitasking on memory? Here are a few strategies:

Build ‘no multitasking zones’ into your day.

The most basic way to counter the momentum of multitasking is to block your calendar for periods of full engagement on the task at hand. Close all the windows on your computer. Put your phone on airplane mode if you have to. Do whatever you need to do to silence the continuous distractions of the attention economy, so you can focus on a single task at a time.

Notice when you crave mental stimulation.

It’s no accident that so many of us struggle to kick this habit of multitasking. As Adam Alter notes in Irresistible, many of the technologies we use have been designed to create a kind of “behavioral addiction” to continuous digital stimulation. We’re drawn to that dopamine-induced hit of pleasure that results from pulling out our phone, reading the news, or scanning our Facebook newsfeed.

As a result, multitasking through over-consuming digital media is easy. Blocking out these distractions to focus is hard. That's where awareness becomes crucial. Notice each time you feel drawn to this base form of informational pleasure. Then see what happens when you resist, when you look at the sky for a minute rather than looking at your phone.

Train the muscle of sustained attention.

Multitasking is to the brain as junk food is to the body. It's the thing we crave that's keeping us from feeling our best. Mindfulness is to the brain as physical exercise is to the body. It's the daily practice that helps us build greater mental strength and endurance. So if you haven’t started some sort of practice already, try meditating for five or more minutes each day. And if you can’t do that, try using your walk from your car or from the train station to work as a time to bring your full attention to the sights and sounds around you.

Donald Hebb, an early neuroscientist, noted the core problem and opportunity at the heart of this modern predicament:“neurons that fire together, wire together.” When we multitask, we’re firing the neural pathways of distraction and diminished memory over and over again. Eventually, these neurons that fire together, wire together.

When we break this habit, however, we're firing new, more productive neural pathways. We’re wiring together mental habits that allow us to achieve deeper levels of focus and heightened levels of memory processing and recall. In short, we're smarter when we just do one thing at a time.

 

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   

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