Announcement: A Swedish discovery behind a new treatment for Alzheimer’s disease

External link: Suesha 25 SEK for research into Alzheimer’s disease

Sweden is at the forefront of Alzheimer’s research. The researcher who set the trend in this field is Lars Lanfelt, professor emeritus and physician. When he began his research in the area in the early 1990s, he helped make a discovery with an extended family in Norrland. American researchers called what they found the “Swedish mutation.”

A mutation is a genetic change, which in this case is hereditary and leads to disease. It was very clear and easy to see that the Swedish mutation led to an increased level of a substance called amyloid beta, which is found in the plaques in the brain in Alzheimer’s disease. In this family, the members of this family were like any other patient with Alzheimer’s except that they developed the disease early in life, says Lars Lanfelt.

Hence, we concluded that all Alzheimer’s diseases begin with amyloid beta.

Lars Lanfelt explains that in Alzheimer’s disease there are two pathological changes, one of which is the plaque containing amyloid beta, which forms early in the disease process. Then there are also what are called neuronal fibers, which can be compared to a tuft and contain phosphorylated tau. When tau spreads to the brain, the first symptoms are noticeable, usually in the form of milder memory loss.

– It is a piece of the puzzle in understanding the origin of the disease.