Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by continuous memory impairment, behavior and social skills, which ultimately affects a person's ability to live independently. So far there are no specific causes, nor an effective treatment and, generally, its detection is done when the disease is already very advanced.

One of the theories that has been investigated to determine the cause of this disease is the idea that in the brain a protein called beta-Amyloid is produced that under pathological conditions is added. This protein added, that would produce toxicity in the brain, would be one of the causes of neurodegeneration, although other endogenous molecules would also be involved in the process.

This was the aim of a study by Professor Kogan, also researcher Advanced Center for Chronic Diseases (ACCDiS ), together with the academic of the Pontifical Catholic University, DRA. Alejandra Álvarez and the Bio-CT Experimental Platform platform of the Faculty of Dentistry of the University of Chile.

Research, published in the journal Biomaterials Science of the Royal Society of Chemistry, gave rise to the development of a new procedure against Alzheimer's disease, which they called "Teranosis". The system proposes the diagnosis and treatment of this pathology by injecting gold nanoparticles. Professor Kogan details that "it is effected by injecting gold nanoparticles coated with peptides, intravenously, achieving the accumulation of the same in the sites of the brain where the aggregates of beta-amyloid are found. The gold accumulated there generates a contrast that can be detected by Computed Tomography (Tc)”.

Read full information here