Nebraska Medicine researchers making strides in Alzheimer’s treament

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – Nebraska Medicine and UNMC have been leaders in health and research for decades, and now, the institution is touting its accomplishments when it comes to reducing and reversing the effects and severity of Alzheimer’s.

Inside the walls of the Durham Research Center on UNMC’s campus, research is being done and breakthroughs are being made that could eventually change the lives of millions.

“I think if one has to look at all medical science, medical research, medical investigations, medical therapeutics and pick one that they would like to have a major impact on, it would be neurodegenerative diseases,” said Dr. Howard Gendelman, a UNMC professor of Pharmacology and Internal Medicine.

Dr. Gendelman has dedicated more than two decades to neurodegenerative research, namely, Alzheimer’s.

“So why Alzheimer’s? Alzheimer’s disease is not simply a disease that affects a single person. It affects a family and it affects a community,” Dr. Gendelman said.

The research started with a simple thought: When you scrape your elbow, your immune system responds with redness, swelling, and some pain. After that, your body starts to make repairs to the affected area.

“We reasoned, why can’t we take this simple repair mechanism that is operative on a day-to-day basis in millions of people and look at ways we can harness that to repair the brain in the face of neurodegenerative disease?” said Dr. Gendelman.

So, that’s exactly what the doctor and his team started working towards.

But there were two major obstacles.

The first was simply identifying, isolating, and studying which cells are involved in repairing injuries, like that scraped elbow. After identifying the cells, the next obstacle was figuring out how to get them to respond specifically to the brain.

They found the answer in genetic engineering. Simply put, they’re training the cells to learn a new function, like teaching a dog a new trick.

“We were able to change the repertoire of these immunological cells,” Dr. Gendelman said. “We’re able to get these cells into the area of the brain, have them grow in that area of the brain and ultimately repair the damage that has occurred and improve cognitive function and improve the neurological manifestations of the disease and clear the cause, these plaques that form as Alzheimer’s evolves over time.”

This process is what sets UNMC’s research apart from other Alzheimer’s research and therapies, Gendelman says.

The cellular therapy was then tested, and it did what they hoped and hypothesized that it would do. Dr. Gendelman and his team tested it on mice with the disease and reported that infected mice saw improvements in cognitive function, like learning and memory.

Now, Gendelman says they have the tools, research, and resources to test the therapy in humans, but need to wait for approval from overarching health organizations like NIH and FDA.

It will take time, but they hope to begin human testing in the next two to three years.

“Our biggest reflection of why we do what we do is to say that we’ve made a difference, we’ve made this world better than before we were here before we were involved,” Dr. Gendelman said.

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