Chucky wrote:No, undefined, it is commonly agreed that Alzheimer's is caused by a break-down in sub-cellular 'cleaning-up' mechanisms. Every cell in the human body produces new proteins for various functions. Some proteins, however, aren't created correctly and end-up as 'garbage'. The cells of young people are well-capable of cleaning-up this garbage. In old people, however, the cells are not so good at it. In some cases, cells in the brains of old people build-up a lot of 'garbage' and this then causes Alzheimer's.
Strangely enough, there is research at the moment where they areactually using viruses to actually cure Alzheimer's.
Kevin
Chucky wrote:Hey,
They would be genetically-engineered viruses (and, so, they wouldn't be capable of causing harm). Basically, the virus would 'carry' a strand of genetically-engineered DNA into the affected cells of the person with Alzheimer's. Then, this short genetically-engineered strand of DNA would become incorporated into the much larger DNA of the individual that already exists in the affected cells. From there, the 'new' DNA could 'fix' the cell.
This approach (using viruses) is already used to treat other things. They are used because they are so small and can easily find their way into cells. A typical virus particle is about a million times smaller than a human cell, and 1,000 times smaller than a bacterial cell.
Kevin
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