One-dose nasal spray clears toxic Alzheimer's proteins to improve memory | Hacker News Reader

One-dose nasal spray clears toxic Alzheimer's proteins to improve memory

newatlas.com

75 pointsdbergqvist33 comments

In "mice that had been genetically altered to express human tau"

https://x.com/justsaysinmice used to "in mice" to sensational health headlines where this is the case. They stopped in 2019, maybe they got overwhelmed.

Although there seems no reason apart from health and safety that you couldn't try it in humans. That they can bypass the blood brain barrier is interesting.

I’m no medical scientist by the slightest means, but couldn’t this open the route to a lot of other treatments for unrelated conditions?

Maybe arterial plaque or even prion disease? Seems very promising.

I think anything that can treat arterial plaque would be great. Take it once every other year as a part of your regular checkup, prevent any issues known to be caused by arterial plaque.

> no reason apart from health and safety

You're not wrong, but this is the reason all of my various partners in adult life have veto me making a Farnsworth fusor or attempting CVD diamond processing at home, and they're not wrong either.

The only difference there being there are no international governing bodies that specialize in subjecting dicey industrial DIY projects to weapons-grade safety testing and documentation requirements.

In general, if you want to bio-hack your own body, you're allowed, nobody will stop you.

e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoczYXJeMY4 (even going past the first treatment he did on himself, to the updated version that's not yet human-rated, it's the creator going "please don't" rather than anything enforced).

The health and safety concerns about stuff like this are mostly about other people getting hurt.

Avoiding fusors won't do you any harm. On the other hand alzheimers is miserable. I'd personally be ok to try a treatment where the odds were 50% cure 50% death.

Quite a lot of people would be very happy with those odds, too.

Trouble is, at least if I understand right, for random new treatments still in the animal trials, the odds much much worse than that (there's also a third option, does nothing, and a fourth option of treating the condition but with side effects).

I don’t think the “in mice” torpedo is as effective in this case. As long as the human tau protein they are modified to express is the same protein targeted in humans then the action of this antibody should be equivalent. We’re talking about extracellular processes here so it should be very similar to how it would work in any animal. ie we don’t have to worry as much about the other differences normally present inside cells of genetically modified mice. Yes there could be confounding variables present in the space between the cells but if this interaction works both in vitro and in vivo it should be generally the same anywhere. All that’s left is safety which should be determinable in the usual ways eg more animal trials.

>As long as the human tau protein they are modified to express is the same protein targeted in humans

I would be surprised if any of this was true. Protein does not behave this way: https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb?query=Tau

You linked a database of Tau proteins naturally expressed by different species of animals. The mice in this study are a breed of mutants that express the human version of the Tau protein.

Unfortunately those mice are really not a great model. They express the human tau yes, but that expression is sensitive to a lot of factors which makes human-inactive treatment work well on them.

Scientists know a fair amount about memory loss and brain capability. There is more to it than the proteins. The fact that we talk so much about reversing it without discussing prevention shows where the money is.

Yes, we can mostly prevent Alz/dimentia based on lifestyle. There are whole groups in the world who mostly didn't get it until they adopted certain lifestyle elements.

For example, when cardiovascular disease you often have clogged arteries that reduce the flow of blood. This also reduces the flow of blood to the brain which impedes its performance and ability to clean things up naturally.

Ref: https://www.amazon.com/Alzheimers-Solution-Breakthrough-Symp... [Note, the book language is played up for a general population audience]

I have seen this book get recommended before. My father is starting to show some signs of cognitive decline (and potentially dementia), and I've been struggling to figure out if there are any particular directions I should nudge him in.

Have you read that book? Is it decent?

It is even more important for you to start taking the right steps. The earlier you take care of your health the better the outcome will be later in life.

For sure. If it wasn't clear, this isn't something affecting me but my father. He is scared and is generally moving in the right direction when it comes to exercise, for example, but certainly not nutrition. Which is why I asked about the book. It is easier for me to point to it (rather than my own notes) and say "here's what these doctors say, follow these guidelines".

I brought up this book because I found it to be good for the reason you're asking about.

It's not the most deep scientific. It's more practical while bringing in the science and an easy enough read I can recommend it to my family (and have).

I read the book. It is decent and has practical advice. The book is a mix between basic scientific explanation, stories of real people, and practical advice. For doctors who run a facility that focuses on cognitive decline.

I read one or two books on health from PhDs every year along with some papers. The material here fits right in with the other health material I've read over the last several years.

I feel like if you really think there's a piece of evidence that you think needs to be shared you should link to some of the published journal articles tho book links to rather than trying to sell a product.

Not trying to sell a product. I didn't have the journal articles handy. Also, a book written for general audiences that mixes science, real stories, and practical advice is helpful for many who want to deal with this rather than go down rabbit holes.

If you want a link to an overview of a study... https://studyfinds.org/mind-diet-cognitive-decline/

> Previous research found that disease progression occurs through a ‘seeding’ mechanism, where toxic tau seeds are released from the cell into the extracellular environment, where they propagate.

Someone explain to me how this is distinct from a prion.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uiTxJ7ASezLY7sl6DSRMo0qmn9f...

In mice. I like how they depict a human and only mention it is in mice later in the article. Those mice are not a great model of alzeihmer, a lot of things work of them that have 0 effect on humans. And it is not even clear that the tau protein accumulation is the cause of issues in humans and could just be the consequence of other mechanisms.

Is tau protein accumulation beneficial?

Yes it is essential to maintain many neural structures and really abundant in a normal functioning brain. What may be an issue could be the accumulation and still we are not sure it couldn't be a protection mechanism for another problem.

I think human trials of this or similar drug is required make it clear if the tau protein accumulation is a driver (as claimed by one of the researchers).

The lead image is DAL-E generated - would have been fun if they had extended the prompt to specify a mouse using a nasal spray.

This is good, but it really bothers me that so much research funding seems to be oriented towards click-generating headlines these days.

Very cool, delivering antibodies straight to the brain. Could this be the approach for a viable prion disease treatment?

> One-dose nasal spray clears toxic Alzheimer's proteins to improve memory

Get to Biden, fast.

Does it tho

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