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Researcher to Discuss Alzheimer's Studies at Providence, R.I., Event

Posted on: Thursday, 18 November 2004, 18:00 CST

Nov. 18--"Decades from now," said Dr. Rudolph E. Tanzi, "we're not going to sit around waiting for diseases like Alzheimer's . . ."

Instead, Tanzi predicted, genetic testing will reveal vulnerability to illness, and drugs will correct the biological processes that go awry when genes mutate.

Tanzi, director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, in Boston, and professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, is working on two such medications for Alzheimer's disease.

He will talk about his work identifying the genetic roots of Alzheimer's disease and future treatments for it tonight at 7 at the Holiday Inn Downtown, 21 Atwells Ave., Providence. Tanzi is presenting the Alzheimer's Association's annual Brian R. Ott, M.D., Research Symposium.

A world-renowned researcher, Tanzi grew up in Cranston, and he credits his science teachers at Cranston East with sparking and nurturing his interest in science.

As a high school student, Tanzi expected to become a practicing physician, but he found himself drawn into research. In 1980, he participated in the study that identified the gene for Huntington's disease -- the first disease identified by genetics. Then he turned his attention to Alzheimer's disease. He isolated the gene for the familial form of Alzheimer's, which strikes people younger than 60, and helped locate two other genes linked to Alzheimer's.

Genes play a role in all forms of Alzheimer's, he said, but their role is stronger the earlier in life the disease strikes. If you carry a gene linked to early-onset Alzheimer's disease, you're guaranteed to get the illness. But those genes linked to old-age Alzheimer's merely predispose people to getting the disease; they need other genes or possibly lifestyle factors to trigger the illness.

By identifying the gene, Tanzi said, doctors can find "the biological pathway" for its effects. If you know the gene's role when it's normal, you can understand what happens when it's abnormal, and from there figure out "in which biological pathway you need to intervene" with medications.

"The ultimate goal is early prediction and early protection," he said.

In the case of late-onset Alzheimer's disease, one gene is involved with overproduction of proteins that interfere with communication between brain cells. Another is involved with the inadequate removal of the protein into the bloodstream.

By identifying the gene, doctors can tell whether the problem is excess production or insufficient cleanup of the protein. Different drugs under study are intended to either block production or enhance the clearance of the protein.

"Genetics has and continues to instruct more than anything else about what is going wrong with this disease," Tanzi said in a phone interview. "Most of the drugs that have the greatest promise have been born out of what we've learned from genes."

But while the nation spends more than $100 billion to care for people with Alzheimer's, only $650 million in federal money is dedicated to researching a cure, he said.

"Funding for Alzheimer's research is just entirely inadequate," Tanzi said. "There is so much that's known about what we need to do and to learn about this disease. . . . The bottleneck is not knowledge. The bottleneck is funding."

Tanzi's talk tonight is free. A reception with refreshments will be held at 6:30. To register, call the Alzheimer's Association at (401) 421-0008.

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Source: Providence Journal

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