UArizona Receives Federal Grant to Further Alzheimer's Research

University of Arizona Professor Chris Hulme has earned a five-year federal grant of $3.8 million from the U.S. National Institute on Aging to further pursue medications to help prevent or reverse Alzheimer's disease, reports KTAR News . Hulme and his team at the college's Arizona Center for Drug Discovery will use the grant to continue development of a treatment to inhibit the activity of certain enzymes in people with Alzheimer's. "To date, most Alzheimer's treatments have focused on addressing only one disease symptom at a time, the most common being the appearance of amyloid plaques, proteins that accumulate in the spaces between nerve cells, which, in a healthy brain, normally are broken down and eliminated," Hulme stated. "Our unique approach provides an opportunity to intervene in several areas simultaneously by inhibiting the activity of the DYRK1A dual-specificity tyrosine-phosphorylation-regulated kinase-1A enzyme." Preliminary findings suggest that hindering DYRK1A lessens the decline of cognitive function and progression of Alzheimer's.