Stem cell therapies and Alzheimer’s disease
‘ Everything in life is memory, save for the thin edge of the present ’ . 9 While there is increasing awareness and realization of the scale of this global health issue, there is relatively little research in this area today, and finding a cure is becoming more and more urgent. This essay seeks to evaluate and explore the potential of one of these possible treatment options: stem cell therapies. To do this, it will first explain the mechanism of the disease for the reader to understand how potential therapies could eliminate the disease. This will be followed by a judgement of the effectiveness of current treatments today. The final section will discuss the potential methods of using stem cells, weighing up the risks and benefits to come up with a judgement as to if stem cells could be more effective than the current treatments today, or if more research and testing is needed for it to become a mainstream therapy.
Section 1: The Consequences of Alzheimer’s disease
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative condition, mostly diagnosed in people above the age of 65. 10 The disease results in severe decline of cognitive function, affecting many parts of the brain as it progresses. To understand how a cure could work, a basic understanding of the mechanism of the disease and symptoms displayed is crucial in allowing us to judge the success of current treatments and stem cell therapies.
1.1: The mechanism of the disease
The brain is comprised of two main cell types, neurons, and glia. Neurons are electrical nerve cells that send chemical messages to one another at contact points called synapses. Glia are non-electrical cells that protect and support neurons. 11 The brain works by constantly transmitting chemical messages across synapses, and this results in many different processes occurring, such as regulating the heartbeat and secreting hormones into the blood. These messages come in the form of chemical compounds known as neurotransmitters such as acetylcholine. 12 A significant loss of acetylcholine is observed in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, due to synapses and neurons breaking down as a cause of the mechanisms of the disease, which will be discussed in this section. Understanding how the disease destroys neurons in the brain is vital for understanding weaknesses scientists can target when trying to find a cure. Unlike cancer, or infectious diseases, AD has no obvious location to target, and this is due to a collection of molecular mechanisms in the brain malfunctioning. The first of these malfunctioning mechanisms is the formation of an excessive number of beta-amyloid plaques. In 1992 neuroscientist John Hardy came up with the ‘ amyloid cascade hypothesis ’ , the most widely accepted theory for the start of neuronal loss in AD. 13 This theory suggests that the primary event in AD is the formation of beta-amyloid plaques on the blood vessels and on the outside surfaces of neurons of the brain. This results in severe deterioration of synapses in parts of the brain affected.
9 Jebelli 2017b. 10 Treatment – Alzheimer’s disease 2018. 11 Jebelli 2017a: 25.
12 Ibid.: 28. 13 Ibid.: 70.
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