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1. Title: Aging cells offer new target for Alzheimer's therapy
2. Author: Jessica Hamzelou
3. Published: September 26, 2012
4. http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21528843.200-ageing-cells-offer-new-target-for-alzheimers-therapy.html?full=true
5. Alzheimer's disease is the most common type of dementia. It is normally diagnosed in people over the age of 65, but it can be diagnosed earlier than that (early-onset Alzheimer's). There are many stages of Alzheimer's. In the early stages, a patient simply forgets recent events. In more advanced stages, they can have mood swings, language difficulty, problems with bodily functions, confusion, and aggression. "On average, the life expectancy following diagnosis is approximately seven years" (Molsa PK, Martilla RJ, Rinne UK, 1986).

The causes of Alzheimer's has long been unknown, and has accounted for the hundreds of unsuccessful treatments. Scientists recently discovered large numbers of senescent cells in Alzheimer's patients. Senescent cells are cells that lose the ability to divide after many cycles of division, which results in deterioration and death of the cell. Claudio Torres at Drexel University College did an experiment to show the damage of senescence. He exposed human astrocytes (star-shaped cells in the brain) to hydrogen peroxide, which mimicked the metabolic stress that occurs with aging. It showed that cells started displaying similarities to genes associated with senescence. "Torres's team then looked for senescent cells in brain slices from fetuses, from people aged 35 to 50 and from people aged between 78 and 90. Healthy brains from adults over 35 had six to eight times more senescent cells than the fetuses. Moreover, adults with Alzheimer's had more of these cells than their Alzheimer's-free peers of a similar age. In the oldest brains, about 30 per cent of the astrocytes seemed to have

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