The very infamous forms of dementia are Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS for short) and Frontotemporal Dementia, or FTD. ALS is a disease of the nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement. FTD is a group of related condition resulting from constant degeneration of the temporal and frontal lobes of the brain. these areas help significantly with decision-making, emotion, language and behavioral control. Patients with these diseases usually pass away within a few years after the symptoms of the disease occurring.
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| Steven Hawking living with the ALS disease |
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| Protein clumps in the brain (brown clumps indicated by the arrows) |
Scientist do not yet know if this clumps formed by the TDP-43 protein is harmful or not, but they do see a relationship between the disease and the clumps. They are not even quite sure the exact function of the protein in the cell but they performed an experiment on zebrafish to understand it better. They bred special zebrafish so they would not have a TDP-43 protein in their cells. their results were very conclusive; the fish hatched and they had massive muscle decay, a cause of ALS and FTD. The young fish died a few days after hatching. This experiment proved the theory of the TDP-43 protein being a factor in the ALS and FTD disease.
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| Zebrafish used in the experiment |
Now scientist are researching the possibility of blood flow being a factor leading to the diseases ALS and FTD because, during the experiment, the zebrafish showed disrupted blood flow.
Themes of nature of Science:
- Science is based on evidence
- Importance of repeatability
- Role of credibility
Related Websites:
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001708/
- http://memory.ucsf.edu/ftd/
- http://www.med.upenn.edu/cndr/TDP43androleonALS.shtml
- http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2009/04/14/alzheimer_cell_death_in_zebrafish_demise_of_neurons_observed_live_for_the_first_time.html
This is a very interesting topic as it concerns the advancement of medicine and prevention and treatment of diseases as ALS. I did a little more research on the topic and found that ALS is caused by the inability of the cell's ''Garbage system'' to destroy TDP-43 giving the cell excess protein on the neurons, So if they are able to help the cell get rid of this protein then it could possibly reduce or slow down the advancement of ALS and the way to do this could be to add Parkin, the cell's natural disposal unit into brain cells, they have done tests in some animals adding parkin to the cells and have found that it slows down ALS, this is very interesting because it means we are closer to understanding the disease and could slow it down and help the people that endure this disease.
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