Subtracting Gravity from Alzheimer's
 
March 4, 2015:  Alzheimer's disease is a global problem.  In the United
States alone, more than 5 million people have the disease and a new
diagnosis is made every 67 seconds-numbers that are just a fraction of
worldwide totals.  Among medical researchers, Alzheimer's is a top
priority.
 
Researchers working with astronauts on the International Space Station are
embarking on a mission to discover the origin of Alzheimer's. Although the
details are still a little fuzzy, researchers believe that Alzheimer's and
similar diseases advance when certain proteins in the brain assemble
themselves into long fibers that accumulate and ultimately strangle nerve
cells in the brain.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxEBK9q686c&feature=youtu.be
 
A new ScienceCast video explores the potential of space research for
understanding Alzheimer's disease. Play it
 
"They're sort of like the crankcase sludge of the human body,"
explains Dan Woodard of NASA's Kennedy Space Center. "The fibers are
not active, so they'll be around forever because your body doesn't have any
way to get rid of them."
 
These fibers take decades to form and accumulate-hence the link between
Alzheimer's and aging. In laboratories on Earth, researchers have figured
out how to make protein fibers accumulate more quickly, so they can study
the process without waiting so long.  On the space station, accumulated
fibers do not collapse under their own weight, which makes the station an
even better place to study them.
 
A four-inch cube containing the experiment, which was selected in an ISS
research contest by Space Florida and Nanoracks, and built at the Florida
Institute of Technology, blasted off to the International Space Station
onboard the SpaceX-5 cargo resupply mission on Jan. 10th. The experiment
itself, SABOL, or Self-Assembly in Biology and the Origin of Life: A Study
into Alzheimer's, will be fully automated.
 
However, observations from this experiment alone won't lead directly to the
discovery of a cure. SABOL is geared more towards understanding the way
that Alzheimer's progresses, not towards creating a pill to stop it from
happening. Although this experiment is only the first in what will surely
be a series, Woodard is optimistic that it could be an extremely valuable
learning experience.
 
"Everybody wants a cure, but without knowing the actual cause of the
disease, you're basically shooting in the dark," Woodard says.
"We don't understand the true mechanism of the disease. If we're
lucky, then we'll find out whether proteins will aggregate in space. Only
in weightlessness can you produce an environment free of convection so you
can see whether they form on their own. We expect to learn incrementally
from this."
 
Eventually, projects like SABOL could lead to the discovery of a method to
slow down the rate at which the harmful fibers grow, thereby opening a
window for a cure. The results of the experiment will be seen after the
samples are returned to Earth and are examined underneath an atomic force
microscope. Woodard speculates that the cause of Alzheimer's could surprise
us by being deceptively simple.
 
Says Woodard, "There have to be chemicals or processes that hinder or
encourage the growth of protein fibers. It may be something as simple as
temperature or salt concentration of the fluid in the brain."
 
Strange but true: The key to unraveling the mysterious cause of Alzheimer's
disease may not lie in the recesses of the human brain, but rather in the
weightless expanse of space. If an answer is ultimately found, it could
very well spring from the microgravity of Earth orbit.  The experiment
begins soon.
 
Credits:  Author: Rachel Molina | Production Editor: Dr. Tony Phillips
 
 
Regards,
 
Roger

--- D'Bridge 3.99