In Poland, 500,000 people have dementia syndromes, 300,000 of whom have Alzheimer's disease. In our country, only 20 per cent of patients are diagnosed at an early stage of the disease. According to estimates from the global organisation Alzheimer's Disease International, another person develops dementia every 3 seconds worldwide. It is estimated that this will be 131 million people in 2050.

One of the main causes of Alzheimer's disease, for which there is no cure yet, is the build-up of a protein called amyloid beta in clusters around neurons in the brain. This reduces their activity and triggers degeneration. Previous studies have shown that more of this substance in the hippocampus - the brain's main centre for learning and memory - impairs the ability to transmit signals between neurons.

Hope in the form of the 'love hormone'

According to a new discovery by Japanese scientists at Tokyo University of Science, this process can be reversed by the so-called love hormone oxytocin.

During their research, a team led by Professor Akijoshi Saito was the first to expose the hippocampus of mice to beta-amyloid to confirm that the protein impaired neuronal signalling.

The researchers then exposed part of the rodent brain to the 'love hormone'. They found that the signal transduction potential between neurons increased again. According to the researchers, this means that oxytocin is able to reverse the damage caused by beta-amyloid.

Key role of receptors

A number of experiments have shown that the receptors for these hormones appear to play a key role in this regard. When scientists artificially blocked them, oxytocin alone did not ameliorate the negative effects of beta-amyloid.

'This is the first study in the world to show that oxytocin can reverse protein-induced damage to the mouse hippocampus ,' said Akijoshi Saitó. However, this is only the beginning, he acknowledged, adding that further studies need to be carried out on live animals and then on humans. Only then will the 'love hormone' be used to treat Alzheimer's disease. We expect that our findings will pave the way for the development of new drugs for dementia. - saito added.

What is Alzheimer's disease?

Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disease of the brain, manifested by the loss of nerve cells in certain parts of the brain. Alzheimer's disease is the most common type of dementia in people over the age of 65. The first symptoms are memory impairment, gradually causing damage to cognitive, intellectual and physical abilities. The disease was first described in 1906 by the German physician Alois Alzheimer.