DAILY LOBO new mexico
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August 17, 2015 | Volume 120 | Issue 2
A vaccine to remember
Campus researchers develop new technique to treat Alzheimer’s disease
By Matthew Reisen Researchers at the UNM Mind Research Network have developed a vaccine that presents the possibility of a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Assistant professor Kiran Bhaskar and senior research specialist Nicole Maphis at Molecular Genetics and Microbiology have worked on several projects that relate to Alzheimer’s pathology, including the new vaccine development. Alzheimer’s affects 5 million people nationwide, Maphis said, because it is an agerelated disorder and develops over time. The number of Alzheimer’s patients is expected to triple by the year 2020, due largely to the “baby boomer” generation. “If we don’t start putting energy, money
and resources towards finding a cure or treatment or something that could even prevent it, where are we going to be in five or seven years?” she said. Many people are familiar with the clinical changes of Alzheimer’s, such as progressive memory loss and difficulty with reading, writing, speaking and performing daily tasks, Maphis said. “What people don’t see is what’s happening on the inside,” she said. “It’s this perfect storm of terrible things.” Maphis said a large part of that perfect storm involves what is called neurofibrillary tangles, or NFTs, which form inside of the neurons and are composed of ‘pathological tau,’ or p-tau. Their research focused on these NFTs and the p-tau specifically, which sits on the axon and serves as a bridge for communication
between other neurons and the whole brain network, she said. When a certain incident occurs, such as Alzheimer’s disease or traumatic brain injury, the tau becomes phosphorylated and eventually falls off. Disconnected tau then link together and form the sheets known as NFTs. “Alzheimer’s is not a normal part of aging. It’s not like you’re going to get older and you’re going to get sick,” Mathis said. “Alzheimer’s is a very progressive disease — and it is a disease. It doesn’t have a cure, and it doesn’t have a treatment.” Bhaskar said research for the vaccine occurred from April 2013 to Feb. 2014 and was made possible by funding from a $50,000 one-year pilot Research Allocation Grant, received from the Health Sciences Center.
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Alzheimer’s page 2