More On Alzheimer’s as Type 3 Diabetes

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EurekAlert follows up on the team that argues Alzheimer's could be classified as a form of diabetes: "By depleting insulin and its related proteins in the brain, [researchers] have replicated the progression of Alzheimer's disease - including plaque deposits, neurofibrillary tangles, impaired cognitive functioning, cell loss and overall brain deterioration - in an experimental animal model ... In the study, brain deterioration was not related to the pancreas, which regulates insulin for the body. When pancreatic insulin is deficient or the body fails to respond to it, the result is Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes. ... postmortem brain tissue of Alzheimer's patients showed a strong link between insulin depletion in the brain and Alzheimer's disease, raising the possibility that Alzheimer's is a neuroendocrine disorder, or a Type 3 diabetes. ... We now know that if you specifically target insulin and its actions in the brain, you could develop new treatments for this disease."

Link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-03/l-rii031606.php