"In Spain there are currently 800,000 people diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. In the case of people over 75 years of age, more than 30% will develop this disease". So says the Associate Dean of the School of Pharmacy of the University of Navarra and researcher of the Neurosciences Program of the research center Applied Medicine (CIMA), Alberto Pérez-Mediavilla, who participated last Wednesday, May 25, in the lecture series of science Pint of Science.

His talk, which took place at the Zentral Mercado de Santo Domingo, aimed to bring the status of the research about Alzheimer's disease (AD) to the public, within a lecture series that are held in Spain and the rest of the world with the goal to disseminate various scientific topics.

According to the expert, at present the research on AD is focused on therapies aimed at neutralizing the Tau and amyloid molecules that are produced inside neurons and which are toxic: "Today we know that these substances cause the disease, but we do not know why they are generated in greater quantities in the brains of Alzheimer's patients and why they are not eliminated, as happens in the brains of healthy people".

He also explains that "we are currently testing new therapies to neutralize the tau and amyloid molecules in people who are already ill, when we should be doing so in those who are on the way to developing it but do not yet have clinical features. It is these people who should be treated, at a stage in which the damage is still reversible or has not yet begun".

Only 4% of AE is genetic

In this regard, the expert recalled that only 4% of Alzheimer's cases have a hereditary origin, due to gene mutations. "These patients are characterized because the symptoms appear very early, before the age of 60, and because the disease progresses at a high rate.

However, Alberto Pérez-Mediavilla recalls that although the inherited and mutated genes are very few, there is an influence Genetics on the risk of suffering Alzheimer's disease: "We know more and more genetic markers that imply a higher risk. This does not mean that they are determinant, but they do mean that, together with other factors, many of them environmental -smoking, per diem expenses...-, they will make that person more likely to grow old with AD".

In addition to the lecture of the professor and researcher of the University of Navarra, the Pint of Science cycle in Pamplona has been completed with the lecture of the professor of the Public University of Navarra Francisco Falcone, entitled "How to turn on a light bulb without wires", and "Technology that surrounds us", to position of Florencio Manteca and Fernando Varela, experts from CENER and CEMITEC, respectively..