Ism Spring Current Event

Trey Hughes, 7th “Gum disease-causing bacteria could spur Alzheimer’s” Published January 23rd, 2019 Summary: A recent study has found bacteria that cause a certain gum disease being found in the brain of people who have Alzheimer’s. The study further tested this bacteria on mice, and it surprisingly spurred on changes characteristic of Alzheimer’s. This discovery has been one of many that have come from researching the pathological and bacterial infections surrounding Alzheimer’s. However, some scientists are understandably skeptical of saying that this bacteria is the actual inducer of Alzheimer’s. The study was published in the Science Advances journal. The study was sponsored by the biotech company Cortexyme Inc out of San Francisco. The cofounder of the company, Stephen Dominy, is a psychiatrist who treated people with HIV at the university of California. Along with entrepreneur Casey Lynch, they founded the company to research the pathological underbelly of Alzheimer’s.

Relation to Topic: This article relates to my project in numerous ways. For one, it is about the pathology behind Alzheimer’s. It also identifies risk factors of the disease, such as poor dental health. It also correlates certain topics I have already researched. For instance: neurobiologist Robert Moir has found that the beta-amyloid protein plaques are a protective barrier against pathogens in the brain. The team that conducted the research also alluded to developing a drug for testing against the bacterium. All of these relate to my topic both with the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s.

Personal Response: Reading this article elicits a lot of conflicting emotions from me. At one end, it adds to the number of risk factors that researchers have been able to identify in regards to Alzheimer’s. However, I know that this discovery is not the end of Alzheimer’s research. It will take years if not decades to fully identify every risk factor and how those risk factors interactive with one another. This fact does however make me hopeful. We have just begun a journey on to finding a cure for Alzheimer’s and are at just the right scientific advancement to see a real change. Ultimately, time will tell if these findings are of any value. It does make one interested into the pathological underpinnings of Alzheimer’s/

MLA Citations KaiserJan, Jocelyn, et al. “Gum Disease–Causing Bacteria Could Spur Alzheimer's.” Science | AAAS, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 5 Feb. 2019, www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/01/gum-disease-causing-bacteria-could-spur-alzheimer-s.