Connection Made Between Diabetes III & Alzheimer's

Scoop Report: Scientists of the Brown Medical School USA www.brown.edu have discovered a new form of diabetes. This type III has no effects on blood sugar but influences the insulin levels in the brain and seems to be associated with Alzheimer’s disease. The results of the study were published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease .www.j-alz.com.

In contrast to the other two diabetes types, Diabetes III refers to low levels of the recently discovered brain insulin. It has been known for some time that diabetics are at increased risk of developing Alzheimer's Disease. Scientists estimate the risk is increased by up to 65 per cent.

Additionally it was proved, that many type II diabetics have deposits of a protein in their pancreas that have a similarity with protein deposits found in the brains of Alzheimer patients. Suzanne de la Monte and her colleagues assume that a third type of diabetes is responsible for this.

By analysing rodents and tissue samples taken from the brains of deceased Alzheimer's patients it was found that insulin and its related proteins are produced in the brain.

Reduced levels of both are linked with the development of Alzheimer. This insulin and its growth factors and receptors in the brain are important for the survival of brain cells. If they are not produced at normal scale, these cells die.

De la Monte explained that the now proved syndromes were not in accordance with either type I nor type II diabetes. Furthermore it was a different and more complex process, which emerged in the central nervous system.

The results are likely to advance new approaches for physicians considering treatment of the brain. It also changes the image of Alzheimer’s disease.

“The consequence is that the treatment of type I or type II diabetes has under certain conditions no impact on Alzheimer. We assume that therapeutic substances must be developed which influence well directed the activities of insulin in the brain," De la Monte says.

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