The researchers in the Duke University School of Medicine, North Carolina, observed in a study carried out in mice that microglial immune cells that generally protect the brain consume an important amino acid called arginine. The researchers suggest that the dementia could be treated by blocking the body's immune response to arginine with the help of a drug named difluoromethylornithine (DFMO).
A sticky protein build-up known as amyloid plaque is seen around the brain of patients with Alzheimer's disease. The researchers reported that using DFMO to block the immune response against arginine helped in preventing the formation of plaques in mice. The researchers also said that they were able to halt the loss of memory in mice by blocking the immune process with the drug.
"If indeed arginine consumption is so important to the disease process, maybe we could block it and reverse the disease," Carol Colton, the senior author of the study, professor of neurology and a member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, according to The Guardian.
Mathew Kan said that "All of this suggests to us that if you can block this local process of amino acid deprivation, then you can protect the mouse, at least, from Alzheimer's disease," reported The Guardian. Kan also noted that "We see this study opening the doors to thinking about Alzheimer's in a completely different way, to break the stalemate of ideas in AD"
Dr James Pickett, the research head at the Alzheimer's society said that the study findings are similar to the earlier studies that reported the arginine deprivation in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease. He also added that establishing the link between arginine metabolism and the brain cell death would be the next step of the study,according to The Independent.