New Study Shows Resveratrol to Being Beneficial to Alzheimer's

Professor Peter Tessier has recently conducted a study and the results have been published in the May edition of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Professor Tessier has shown that resveratrol selectively targets and neutralizes the peptide isoforms that are toxic, it basically clumps the peptides that are toxic and leaves the good ones that are benign alone. It has been found that peptide isoforms that are toxic or bad are linked to Alzheimer's disease formation. The peptides essentially collect plaque in the brain and the plague are then linked to cell death, hence contributing to Alzheimer's disease.

It has not been determined if resveratrol is able to actually penetrate the blood brain barrier. Tessier and the other researchers have determined that peptides are packed in essentially five different arrangements which are non toxic oligomer, soluble oligomer, fibrillar intermediates, amyloid fibrils and monomer. However only three are actually toxic formations that are harmful to humans.

The real breakthrough of the study was that the resveratrol could essentially target the packing arrangements that were toxic and actually repackage them into formations that were not toxic and it didn't touch the non-toxic formations making it actually able to single toxic formations out and change them as needed.

The study also noted that the soluble oligomer which is toxic and the non toxic oligomer which is non toxic to humans and can hardly be distinguished by many different tests was identified by the resveratrol and changed however only the soluble was touched. Thereby indicating that the even unnoticeable differences in toxic and non toxic arrangements must have some kind of distinguishable factors that have not yet been identified but that the resveratrol can detect.

Professor Tessier's findings are substantial and may play a big part into discovering a cure for Alzheimer's in the future. Tessier became a member of the Rensselaer educational faculty back in 2007 and his research has shown to be a very exciting breakthrough.

I have been a nurse for over 28 years and severe Alzheimer's disease afflicted my grandmother before her death several years ago. Alzheimer's disease is a very troubling and devastating disease that afflicts many elderly each year. For families this can be almost like the kiss of death, families feel crushed and heartbroken seeing their loved ones rapid deterioration by the disease and in many cases it is hard once their loved ones reach the point of the disease where they no longer remember them or are scared by their own family members. Alzheimer's is a hard diagnosis to accept many times in a family and any breakthroughs in my opinion can be a crucial step in finding a cure.

Resveratrol has been determined as being beneficial in many other medical conditions including heart disease and aging. Many studies are looking at this substance as a real breakthrough in treatment advancements of many different medical conditions.

References for this article include:

resveratrolbenefits.org/
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090611174052.htm
www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2202/9/S2/S6
www.webmd.com/alzheimers/news/20051104/compound-in-red-wine-may-fight-alzheimers