Myelin model for Alzheimer’s proposed

A U.S. researcher suggests his myelin model — based on a sheat the covers nerve axons — is cause for rethinking Alzheimer’s disease.

George Bartzokis of the University of California, Los Angeles, says present drug targets — the amyloid-beta peptide and the tau peptide implicated in Alzheimer’s as well as clinical signs such as memory loss — are actually preceded by the breakdown of myelin.

Bartzokis explains myelin — the fatty sheath covering the nerve axons, allowing for efficient conduction of nerve impulses — is key to higher cognitive function. He points out that with age, myelin may begin breaking down faster than it can be repaired.

Bartzokis notes myelination of the brain grows strongly until people are in their 50s but can then begin to unravel slowly and even initiate mechanisms that produce degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease.

The myelin model, Bartzokis suggests, could bring an entirely different approach to drug treatment. Treating Alzheimer’s disease by simply going after plaque formation may be, Bartzokis argues, similar to cleaning up a house that’s been flooded by water, but never repairing the actual pipe that created the flood.