New stem cell platform can help predict Alzheimers and which treatments work best – Boston Herald

A first-of-its-kind stem cell platform developed by researchers at Brigham and Womens Hospital can help to predict who will get Alzheimers disease, why they may have it and which treatments would work best.

Im really excited about this research because I think it will have an impact on families, said Tracy Young-Pearse, associate chair of neuroscience research at Brigham and Womens Hospital and one of the authors on the study published Wednesday in Neuron.

Young-Pearse and her team generated stem cell lines from 50 study participants who were tracked for decades and studied further after death. The human stem cells were turned into brain cells and then living neurons could be analyzed in the lab.

Cell lines were created from people with Alzheimers and those who were cognitively normal as well.

You can measure something in a dish and it tells you something about what happened in the brain of an 80-plus year-old person, Young-Pearse told the Herald.

The unique cellular platform captured tons of precious genetic information. Researchers found specific forms of proteins associated with cognitive decline and Alzheimers and also uncovered pathways that influence the production of such toxic proteins.

Alzheimers is caused by plaque and tangles in the brain, and the rate of cognitive decline was correlated with the specific proteins the researchers found.

The cell platform, which Young-Pearse said she plans to share with scientists worldwide, can disentangle why someone may get Alzheimers and why someone else may not.

It can also predict the rate of cognitive decline in humans and be used to find out which treatments may work best in a particular patient.

We are going to share that throughout the world so everyone can bring special expertise scientifically to address this very complicated problem, Young-Pearse said.

More than six million Americans are living with Alzheimers disease and that figure is expected to rise to 13 million by 2050, according to the Alzheimers Association. The disease kills more seniors than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined.

Young-Pearse said she became interested in the disease after first learning about it as a child.

I couldnt believe there was something that could take away your memories and make you forget your family members, said Young-Pearse, who later became interested in science and jumped at the chance to work at Brigham and Womens Hospital.

She said the new research generates a resource all scientists can use to study Alzheimers and hopefully solve the devastating disease.

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New stem cell platform can help predict Alzheimers and which treatments work best - Boston Herald