Interesting article about an Alzheimers-blindness link. I suspect that as scientists continue to unravel proteomics and genomics, we will find many such links. I recently read about a link between thyroid diseases and ovarian cancer. Finding a protein attached to a particular disease or diseases is exciting because it potentially allows drug companies to come up with a medication that interferes with that protein.
At any rate, an excerpt of the story is below.
LONDON (Reuters) - A protein that damages tissue in the brains of Alzheimer's patients is also the main cause of blindness worldwide, British researchers said in a new finding that may lead to better treatment for both diseases.
In a study published in the U.S. journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, on Monday the scientists said the same protein, beta-amyloid, which plays a key role in the brain-wasting illness also causes nerve cell damage in the eye from blindness-inducing glaucoma.
Recent studies have suggested connections between Alzheimer's and glaucoma and the new finding bolsters that evidence, said Francesca Cordeiro, a glaucoma specialist at London's University College and leader of the study.
"This is the first time anybody has provided evidence that the same protein in Alzheimer's causes retinal nerve cell loss," she said in a telephone interview.
Scientists do not know what causes glaucoma which affects some 65 million people worldwide.
Most treatments seek to lower the build-up in pressure from fluids in the eye, but the treatment does not work for as many as 30 percent of glaucoma patients, Cordeiro said.
She hoped the study of laboratory rats would lead to an alternative treatment for humans one day.
After the team identified the protein link between the two diseases, they administered a combination of experimental Alzheimer's drugs to laboratory rats, Cordeiro said.
My 80yr old father has just developed blindness overnight. Nobody seems to be linking it to his Altzheimer's that was diagnosed approx 2 years ago. Are the medical profession aware of this link between blindness and Altzheimer's?
Posted by: Karen Sayers | January 30, 2012 at 09:16 AM