Doctor Francisco Lopera And A New Way To Treat Alzheimer’s Disease
Five major research projects are currently underway to develop drugs to treat Alzheimer’s disease. Four of them are being developed in the United States and one in Colombia. The latter is directed by Dr. Francisco Lopera, who has made amazing progress in the 30 years he has studied this disease.
The difference between the work of Dr. Francisco Lopera and the work of other researchers is the fact that, partly by chance and partly due to constant exploration, he found a new way of dealing with the disease. This method is related to genetic peculiarities he found in one of his patients.
Alzheimer’s disease is a type of dementia that causes great suffering to people who suffer from it, as well as their families. The progressive loss of memory and various abilities corresponds to a slow death of identity, life projects and reason to live. Many people in the world are waiting, if not for a cure, at least in a more effective way to treat Alzheimer’s disease than the current ones.
The research of Dr. Francisco Lopera
Dr. Francisco Lopera leads a research project in which he has worked with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States, the Banner Alzheimers Institute , the Genentech company, and most recently with experts from Massachusetts General Hospital and the Schepens Eye Research Institute . The headquarters of their work is the University of Antioquia in Colombia.
He spent a lot of time trying to develop a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers have made important progress, but the medicines on the market are limited. For this reason, and for some years now, research has focused on prevention rather than cure.
Currently, there are increasing sound methods for early detection. However, these are sophisticated procedures that are not yet available to everyone and are only used in research groups. D a is, however, likely that they will soon be available to all, which is a great step forward.
Another opportunity for research
Dr. Francisco Lopera has found a new opportunity for research, and hopefully this will enable physicians to treat Alzheimer’s disease better. It all started in 1984, when he was a doctor of neurology. He was visited by a patient who was only 47 years old and already in advanced stages of this disease. When he investigated his case, he learned that this patient’s father, grandfather and uncles had also suffered the same.
This led him to do genealogical research of this family, and in doing so he found the first family group with an inherited form of Alzheimer’s disease. Later, as a researcher, he found two other families with the same characteristics. Eleven years after the first finding, his working group proved that it really was Alzheimer’s, and that the disease in this case was due to a gene mutation.
Years passed and new cases emerged. In all of them they found the same qualities. They called it the “paisa mutation” because there were no other references in the world to it. Paisa refers in particular to a group of people living in the northern part of Colombia in the Andes.
However, the truly amazing part of this investigation had not happened.
New ways to treat Alzheimer’s disease
Dr. Lopera explains that Alzheimer’s disease is a kind of accumulation of “garbage” in the brain. It consists of a protein called amyloid. Fragments of it stick together and form a kind of “glue” that attaches to the neurons and causes a number of malfunctions in the brain. The other part of the “garbage” is rope, which wraps around the neuron, “locks” it and kills it. Ropes are more harmful.
One of the patients treated by Dr. Francisco Lopera was a member of one of the families that had the mutation, and she developed it herself. Unlike all relatives, however, she did not develop the disease early. Her first symptoms did not appear until she was in her 70s. Her case was absolutely exceptional, and that is why the research focused on her.
After careful study in Boston, experts found that the patient’s brain was filled with amyloid, even more so than in other cases. However, she had very little rope. The research allowed them to verify that another mutation inhibited the production of ropes in this patient, and it was this that delayed the development of the disease.
The journal Nature published the article, which opened a whole new portal with research to treat Alzheimer’s disease. Experts believe that based on the information gathered with this patient, it would be possible to develop gene therapy so that this genetic information could be replicated in other people. Experts are also considering developing a drug to mimic the mechanism of the protective mutation.
