Medical researchers at the University of Alberta led by Jack Jhamandas took brain tissue from animal models with Alzheimer's disease and tested the tissue in the lab, looking specifically at the cells' memory capacity.
When brain cells are shocked by a barrage of electrical impulses, the cells "remember" the experience; this is a typical way to test or measure memory in the lab setting.
Amyloid protein, which is found in abnormally large amounts in the memory and cognition parts of the brains of Alzheimer's patients, diminishes memory.
A sister protein, known as amylin, which comes from the pancreas of diabetic patients, has the same impact on memory cells.
Jhamandas and his team demonstrated last year that a diabetes drug that never made it to market, known as AC253, could block the toxic effects of amyloid protein that lead to brain-cell death.
In the lab, Jhamandas and his teammates, including Ryoichi Kimura, a visiting scientist from Japan, tested the memory of normal brain cells and those with Alzheimer's
