A New Era in Alzheimer’s Treatment

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kerem Teralı  who is a faculty member  at Cyprus International University (CIU) Faculty of Medicine and also Supervisory Board Member of Alzheimer's Association said with increased longevity the incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease has increased and Alzheimer's disease and other dementias are the 7th leading cause of death in the world.

Making a statement on the occasion of September 21st , World Alzheimer's Day, Teralı said that Alzheimer's disease, which is the most common form of dementia, is a progressive loss in memory and other cognitive functions (Ex: speech, face recognition, location-orientation, calculation, etc.) and  added that it was a neurodegenerative disorder that caused the loss of these functions.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Teralı stated that the disease is caused by the abnormal buildup of some wrongly processed proteins between and inside the nerve cells, and this situation causes nerve cell loss.

Teralı also stated that the disease is familial in only a quarter of the cases and is transmitted from generation to generation through genes, and underlined that the effects of sociodemographic, behavioral, psychological and medical risk factors are great in the remaining Alzheimer's cases.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Teralı reminded that until 2022, a limited number of drugs known as cholinesterase inhibitors were used in the early symptomatic treatment of mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease. In this way, chemical messenger, or neurotransmitter molecule 
called acetylcholine, which nerve cells use to communicate with each other, continues to exist in the brain for a longer period of time and hence cognitive decline is suppressed.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kerem Teralı stated that a new medicine for the treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease was approved by US Food and Drug Administration which had the potential to cleanse the brain off the protein buildup. 
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Teralı in closing stated that new drug discovery and development processes progress slowly due to the fact that Alzheimer's disease is a multifaceted and complex disease, and added “it should not be forgotten that the main thing in preventing or delaying this disease basically relies on the individuals’ adopting a healthy lifestyle as of young age.”