Alzheimer's may be third type of diabetes

EVANSTON, Ill., Sept. 26 (UPI) -- Findings by U.S. researchers support the idea that Alzheimer's memory loss is linked to a novel, third type of diabetes.

The study, published in the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Journal, showed a toxic protein found in Alzheimer's patients -- amyloid-beta derived diffusible ligand, or ADDL -- removes insulin receptors from nerve cells making them insulin resistant and stopping brain insulin signaling crucial for memory.

"We found the binding of ADDLs to synapses somehow prevents insulin receptors from accumulating at the synapses where they are needed," research team leader William L. Klein, of Northwestern University, in Evanston, Ill., said in a statement.

"Instead, they are piling up where they are made, in the cell body, near the nucleus. Insulin cannot reach receptors there. This finding is the first molecular evidence of why nerve cells should become insulin resistant in Alzheimer's disease."

Klein said he believes the findings are a major factor in the memory deficiencies caused by ADDLs in Alzheimer’s brains and reveals a fundamental new connection between two fields -- diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease, which offers hope for therapeutics.

"We want to find ways to make those insulin receptors themselves resistant to the impact of ADDLs," Smith said. "And that might not be so difficult."