Charité: New Treatment Approach for Alzheimer's Disease
Date: 22.12.2011
Researchers plan to use specialized cells of the immune system
For the first time a research team at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Universitätsklinik Freiburg succeeded in documenting how the immune system can counteract the advancement of Alzheimer's disease. Within the scope of their neuroscience paper they showed that certain scavenger cells in the immune system, so-called macrophages, play a key role in this context. Furthermore, they were able to demonstrate how special cell-signaling proteins, so-called chemokines, mediate the defense process. The results of the study have now been published in the renowned Journal of Neuroscience.
Prof. Josef Priller, Director of Neuropsychiatry at Campus Charité Mitte, is head of the research team. The paper was sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research ('BMBF') and the German Research Foundation ('DFG'). For ten years now the scientists have been investigating the exact role of macrophages in neurodegenerative diseases. "Macrophages can reduce harmful deposits in the brain that are the cause of Alzheimer's disease," Prof. Priller explains.
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