Protein discovery could lead to Alzheimer's treatment

A protein found to be lacking in the brains of people with Alzheimer's could be the key to a potential treatment, researchers say.

Scientists say the discovery of the IL-33 protein that has the ability to reverse cognitive decline in mice is "encouraging".

Mice with a similar disease to Alzheimers recovered their memory and brain function within a week when injected with the IL-33 protein.

The brains of patients with Alzheimer's contains less of the protein than those of non-sufferers.

The experiments on mice with an Alzheimer's type disease found that the protein rapidly improved memory and brain function. Credit: PA

Glasgow professor Eddy Liew, who co-directed the research, said the relevance of the finding was unclear at present but "there are encouraging hints".

The hallmarks of Alzheimer's include the presence of a type of deposit and also neurofibrillary 'tangles' in the brain, which build up and lead to the loss of connections between nerve cells and eventually to loss of brain tissue.

IL-33 appears to mobilise immune cells in the brain to reduce the number and size of the deposits and inhibits inflammation of the brain tissue to restrict tangles from forming.

The research by Glasgow University and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) is published in the latest issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (PNAS).