Alzheimer's Research

Alzheimer devastates the memory and ability to live independently of 4.5 million Americans today.  By 2050, it is expected that 16 million Americans will be afflicted with the disease.  The cost, direct and indirect, of caring for Alzheimer’s patients today is estimated at $100 billion per year in the United States alone.

In the Ashe Laboratory here at the University of Minnesota, researchers led by Karen Hsiao Ashe are making significant breakthroughs in Alzheimer disease research.  In 1996, the Ashe Laboratory was the birthplace of Tg2576, a transgenic mouse that mimics the early stages of Alzheimer disease with memory loss and the development of amyloid-beta plaques in the brain, one of the hallmarks of the disease.  Today, Tg2576 is the most widely-used mouse model of Alzheimer disease in the world, enabling researchers world-wide to study the early stages of the illness and test experimental treatments.

The Ashe Laboratory also has created rTg4510, a mouse which develops the tangles of tau protein within neurons and the memory loss and brain atrophy associated with late stage Alzheimer disease.  rTg4510 and Tg2576 both have proven useful in achieving significant discoveries lately, namely:

·          Memory loss is reversible in mice;
·          Amyloid plaque deposition is not the main cause of memory loss;
·          Tangle formation is not a cause of memory loss.

The significance of these discoveries has allowed for the creation of the Center for Clinical Care and Research in Alzheimer Disease at the University of Minnesota, to take place January 1, 2006.  It will be home to an endeavor providing both care and the search for the cure of this devastating disease.

 "Ever since Alois Alzheimer described the plaques and tangles that were evident when he examined the brains of demented patients in 1906, the focus of scientific research on Alzheimer disease has been on these plaques and tangles," says Ashe. "Rather than studying the structural consequences of the plaques and tangles, we have been studying the functional consequences of amyloid-beta  and tau, the proteins they are made of. Our discoveries have been helpful in shifting prevailing thought: Plaques and tangles are now considered late stage lesions, or 'tombstones,' of the disease, not the causes of it. Our research is now focusing on finding the specific forms of proteins that disrupt memory, even before the plaques and tangles develop."