New hope for Alzheimer's cure? - KOBI-TV NBC5 / KOTI-TV NBC2

(KUSA) Researchers in Denver, Colorado have found a definitive link between Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease.

“If we want to find a cure to Alzheimer’s, we have to further study Down syndrome,” scientist Huntington Potter said.

Potter and his colleague Tom Blumenthal testify at a Congressional hearing in Washington D.C. next Wednesday.

“The connection between Down Syndrome and Alzheimer’s became known gradually,” Blumenthal said. “As people with Down Syndrome got older.. and they didn’t used to…they got old enough to get Alzheimer’s.”

Potter has just concluded trials on mice into a cure for Alzheimer’s. He is cautiously optimistic but very pleased at where the research is pointing.

“We discovered people with rheumatoid arthritis make a protein that releases into the blood and seems to protect them,” Potter said. “The mice that are given this protein don’t get Alzheimer’s disease. Now, we’re starting this clinical trial to prevent Alzheimer’s disease in typical people.”