Context: Recently, Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology-Guwahati (IIT-G) have found methods for preventing the accumulation of neurotoxic molecules in the brain, which leads to Alzheimer’s disease.
Key Findings

• A war trick borrowed from Greek mythology, specifically poet Homer’s epic Iliad, could help reduce short-term memory losses associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
• The cause of Alzheimer’s is the accumulation of amyloid-beta peptides in the brain.
• Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology-Guwahati (IIT-G) have, after a five-year study, arrived at methods for preventing the accumulation of neurotoxic molecules in the brain, which leads to memory loss.
• One is the use of “trojan peptides” that does what the Trojan horse did for the ancient Greeks in their victory over Troy.
• A “deceitful” peptide with “negative syncretical points” for checking the plaque formation has been designed.
• “Through intravenous injection of the trojan peptide, we can retard the degeneration of nerve cells by 17-35%, translating into a 10-year delay in the onset of the disease,” Dr. Ramakrishnan said.
• The other is the application of a low-voltage electric field toward preventing amyloid plaques from aggregating to cause memory loss.
• The peptide molecules need to have a certain structure to aggregate.
• The use of an external electric or magnetic field modulates these molecules to “pull back the possibility of Alzheimer’s to a certain extent”.
• The next step for the researchers is to work with these techniques on mice induced with Alzheimer’s at the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research in Guwahati.
• The IIT-G researchers said some 100 potential drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease failed between 1998 and 2011.
• The development of a cure for the disease is important for India, which is third behind China and the U.S. in the number of Alzheimer’s patients, they said.

About Alzheimer

• It is a progressive brain disorder that typically affects people older than 65. When it affects younger individuals, it is considered early onset.
• The disease destroys brain cells and nerves, and disrupts the message-carrying neurotransmitters.
• Eventually, a person with Alzheimer’s loses the ability to perform day-to-day activities.
• Symptoms include memory loss, difficulty in completing familiar tasks, confusion with time or place, problems in speaking and writing, decreased or poor judgment, and changes in mood and personality.
• Alzheimer’s disease is also the most common cause of dementia which is a syndrome and not a disease in itself, and whose symptoms include loss of memory, thinking skills, problems with language, changes in mood and deterioration in behaviour.
• Treatment: There is no cure for Alzheimer’s, because its exact causes are not known. Most drugs being developed try to slow down or stop the progression of the disease.
• There is a degree of consensus in the scientific community that Alzheimer’s involves two proteins, called beta amyloids and tau. 
• When levels of either protein reach abnormal levels in the brain, it leads to the formation of plaque, which gets deposited between neurons, damaging and disrupting nerve cells.
• Most existing drugs for Alzheimer’s try to target these proteins to manage some of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s.