London: In a breakthrough, British scientists have isolated a "killer" gene which they believe causes Alzheimer`s.
Researchers at King`s College London believe that by identifying clusterin as a trigger for Alzheimer`s they have taken a vital step towards developing treatments to stop the nuerodegenerative disease in its tracks.
Experts at the university`s Institute of Psychiatry believe clusterin sets off a chain of events that causes amyloid-beta, a protein, to start destroying brain cells, the Daily Express reported.
Many drugs prescribed for Alzheimer`s patients aims to cut the amount of amyloid-beta in their brain.
The neurologists are now looking instead at blocking clusterin`s trigger action "in order to ameliorate or even halt Alzheimer`s".
This important study fills in critical gaps regarding the complex way Alzheimer`s takes hold and could lead us towards a new way of diagnosing, targeting and treating the condition more effectively," Professor Clive Ballard, director of research for the Alzheimer`s Society, said.
The research will be published in the medical journal Molecular Psychiatry.
PTI
