Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Researchers Discover New Way to Block Inflammation in Alzheimer’s, Atherosclerosis and Type-2 Diabetes

Get your researchers after this, this sounds incredibly important.
http://livasperiklis.com/2013/07/02/httpwp-mep29tmj-4hs/
Researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center have discovered a mechanism that triggers chronic inflammation in Alzheimer’s, atherosclerosisand type-2 diabetes.

The results, published today in Nature Immunology, suggest a common biochemical thread to multiple diseases and point the way to a new class of therapies that could treat chronic inflammation in these non-infectious diseases without crippling the immune system. Alzheimer’s, atherosclerosis and type-2 diabetes—diseases associated with aging and inflammation—affect more than 100 million Americans.

When the body encounters a pathogen, it unleashes a rush of chemicals known as cytokines that draws immune cells to the site of infection and causes inflammation. Particulate matter in the body, such as the cholesterol crystals associated with vascular disease and the amyloid plaques that form in the brain in Alzheimer’s disease, can also cause inflammation but the exact mechanism of action remains unclear. Researchers previously thought that these crystals and plaques accumulate outside of cells, and that macrophages—immune cells that scavenge debris in the body—induce inflammation as they attempt to clear them.

We’ve discovered that the mechanism causing chronic inflammation in these diseases is actually very different,” says Kathryn J. Moore, PhD, senior author of the study and associate professor of medicine and cell biology, Leon H. Charney Division of Cardiology at NYU Langone Medical Center.

More at link.

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