UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers found in an animal study that doses of DNA-gene-coated gold particles can protect against a protein associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD). That specific protein is called amyloid-beta 42. Accumulation of which in humans is a hallmark of AD.

The researchers found that by pressure-injecting the gene responsible for producing amyloid-beta 42 can cause antibodies to produce, thereby greatly reducing the protein build up in the brain thus preventing Alzheimer's.

The researchers used mutant mice with two defective human genes associated with Alzheimer's, genes that produce amyloid-beta 42. "By seven months, the mice are storing abundant amounts of amyloid-beta 42," said Dr. Rosenberg.

While the mice were young, the scientists coated microscopically small gold particles with human amyloid-beta 42 genes attached to other genes that program cells to make the protein. The particles were then injected with a gene gun into the skin cells of the mice's ears using a blast of helium.

After receiving 11 injections over several months, the mice showed a high level of antibodies to amyloid-beta 42, and a 60 percent to 77.5 percent reduction of plaques in their brains.

This new study can be found online and will appear in the upcoming issue of the Journal of the Neurological Sciences.

Source: UT Southwestern Medical Center News