GUWAHATI: Researchers at Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati are working on out-of-the-box ideas that can help prevent or reduce short-term memory losses associated with Alzheimers disease.

Our research has provided a different path that may extend the onset of the Alzheimers disease. However, it would take testing in animal models and clinical trials before bringing in such new therapeutic approaches into human treatment said one of the project coordinators, Professor Vibin Ramakrishnan of Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering at the institute.

The IIT Guwahati team reports interesting methods such as application of low-voltage electric field, and the use of trojan peptides to arrest aggregation of neurotoxic molecules in the brain. The scientists are assisted by research scholars Dr. Gaurav Pandey and Jahnu Saikia in their work, and the results of their studies have been published in reputed journals such as ACS Chemical Neuroscience, RSC Advances of Royal Society of Chemistry, BBA and Neuropeptides, a statement said.

Approximately hundred potential drugs for treatment of Alzheimers disease have failed between 1998 and 2011, which shows the gravity of the problem, says Professor Ramakrishnan, who participates in worldwide efforts at finding cures for the disease.

A defining hallmark of Alzheimers is the accumulation of Amyloid beta peptides in the brain. Dr. Ramakrishnan and Dr. Nemade are seeking methods to reduce the accumulation of these peptides, in order to arrest the progression of Alzeimers.

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IIT Guwahati finds pathways that may extend onset of the Alzheimers disease - Times of India