Novel Herbal Compound Offers Potential to Prevent and Treat

Alzheimer's Disease AND

  Novel Test Streamlines Testing for Huntington Disease

 Andrés D. Monsalve NaranjoUniversidad Pontificia Bolivariana

Introduction

• Molecular Biology Techniques have become one of the most important “tools” that a physician has to diagnose. 

• They make better and easier the decision of starting a treatment for the pathology found.

• These techniques are also the responsibles of the last advances of Medicine itself because of their use on investigation

Molecular Biology Techniques 

PCR ELISA RIA & IF

Novel Herbal Compound Offers Potential to Prevent and Treat Alzheimer's Disease

 

• It’s been demonstraded on a mouse model that the administration of TSG has reversed overexpresion of α-synuclein and its acumulation.

α-synuclein is one of the causes of Alzheimer’s disease

Novel Herbal Compound Offers Potential to Prevent and Treat Alzheimer's Disease

Accumulation of α-synuclein generates insoluble compound that is associate to Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.

This accumulation increases with age.

This research could be the discovery of a novel treatment for the mentioned diseases

Novel Herbal Compound Offers Potential to Prevent and Treat Alzheimer's Disease

Use of AD: APPV717I transgenic (Tg) mice with the London mutation

Use of micro arrays, PCR, western blotting and inmunochemistry

4 month old Tg

distilled water Low dose TSG (120 µmol/kg/d)

high dose TSG (240 µmol/kg/d)

Novel Herbal Compound Offers Potential to Prevent and Treat Alzheimer's Disease

TSG-treated groups showed that TSG-treatment downregulated α-synuclein mRNA and protein overexpression of the Tg mice. 

The effect was stronger at the higher dose. This suggests that TSG may have a role in preventing the neurotoxic effects

• It has therapeutic potential even after neuropathologic changes have occurred.

Personal Opinion

I found very interesting this news because it makes me think about how many things are in the universe that we do not know and can help us fight all kind of pathologies. In this case is all about Alzheimer’s Disease and the results that come with it are very promising. Let’s hope it can really work in humans. So what’s Next? The cure for Cancer? AIDS?   

Novel Test Streamlines Testing for Huntington Disease

It has been discovered a new test to detect Huntington’s Disease (HD). 

It uses a triplet repeat primed PCR (TP PCR) methodology.

Novel Test Streamlines Testing for Huntington Disease

246 samples that had been diagnosed with other methods

Tested them with TP PCR

Novel Test Streamlines Testing for Huntington Disease

TP PCR correctly sized 240 of the 246 samples

Novel Test Streamlines Testing for Huntington Disease

TP PCR uses a forward and reverse chimeric primer to amplify from multiple priming sites within the trinucleotide repeat. 

TP PCR produces a characteristic ladder on a fluorescence electropherogram that allows the rapid and inexpensive identification and quantification of expanded repeats.

Personal Opinion

I loved this article because it shows how medicine keeps improving everyday. Huntington’s disease is a deathly illness but the sooner you make the diagnostic the sooner you can start treatment and delay the symptoms the most. 

Medical Utility: First news

• For physicians is really useful this discovering because Alzheimer’s Disease is a very common pathology in Colombia.

Medical Utility: First news

Even Though Alzheimer’s Disease is treatable it isn’t curable so this new alternative if only we could develop and try it on humans as treatment/cure of the illness we’d be in front of one of the greatest advances of medicine ever.

Medical Utility: Second news

It is not only a helpful molecular biology technique diagnostic but also it enhance a 

process that was already set up

This new technique can be done faster, safer, cheaper and even more specific because it can detect very precise things that couldn’t have found before.

Medical Utility: Second News

Bibliography

• Martínez  S. Lina María. Biología Molecular , 5 ed. Medellín, UPB, Facultad de Medicina.

• Novel Herbal Compound Offers Potential to Prevent and Treat Alzheimer's Disease, Science Daily, February 15 2013, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130217085301.htm

• Novel Test Streamlines Testing for Huntington Disease, Science Daily, February 13 2013,  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130213082445.htm