Smoke and Alzheimer´s disease.

Everybody have two or three friends who are smoking. Also, we have sadly some familiar who suffers Alzheimer or anything similar dementia. I ask myself, what kind of relation is there between smoke and the Alzheimer? This week I have read an article through to Mind and Brain´s (Mind & Brain) magazine and I have found what it could have a direct relation.

People know that Alzheimer's disease has an aetiology unknown because the main researches didn´t find any reason. Despite it being unknown, we can know that is more often find it in woman who is 65 or more age, and it coexists with other pathologies like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Also, there are other behaviour mental and physical that can benefit or harm the occurrence of the Alzheimer. Once of this is the smoke.

At the beginning people thought what if you smoked, you would be protected of the many illness like Alzheimer. The main researches didn´t found any direct relation between appearance of this dementia, and the behaviour to smoke. However, researches didn´t consider many factors like other causes associated with smoking. Here, we can say, that didn´t regard illness like cancer or CVD. Neither In the laboratory, the researches didn´t find a relation with the main hypothesis. In fact, research with transgenic mice suggested that the treatment with nicotine, could show an improvement in the development of this dementia.

In order to we want to understand better this idea, I should show you a biological explanation. In first time, there are in the mice´s brain a group of neurons with nicotinic Ach receptors. Those, are activated by nicotine when this is in theirs brain. Second, these receptors affect to the memory and attention processes too. Therefore, the researches managed nicotine to the mice. The thought that if they managed nicotine these animals, then they would have Alzheimer in the future. Results showed an improvement in their cognitive processes also an increased neuronal survival. Surely, these people didn´t attended other factors and components which we can find in a cigarette, like carbon monoxide, tar, hydrogen cyanide and ammonia.

After that, the researches wanted to check if there was a relation between the behaviours smoking with the Early-onset of Alzheimer. Workers did a procedure more applicable to human life. They chose mice that were old and with high probability to suffer Alzheimer. Also, these mice must have a genetic predisposition for this dementia. Claudio Soto was the director of this research, which were doing for 4 months. The researches exposed to mice smoke snuff daily. That smoke, was inhaled by a box. The cigarette had to be fired for one hour and a bomb sucked out the smoke, and this was introduced in the box again. Thus, these people were able to do a situation where a person smokes 3-4 cigarettes daily. Also, the workers did a control group to see the contrast with the experimental group. This control group didn´t breath the smoke snuff.

Results showed in the experimental group if we compare to the control group more amount of toxic proteins in the brain. Also they saw the brain regions relation with memory and learning were inflamed. They concluded that behaviour smoking can high the probability to suffer Alzheimer´s disease, that this appear early, and worsen their symptoms. Besides, if we had to put these results to the humans, we could say that an active smoke has twice as likely to suffer this dementia.

Sadly, there aren´t more discoveries about this disease. Nobody knows what is the main reason of the appear to Alzheimer neither nobody knows what is the molecular mechanics by the behaviour smoke high the probability to suffer Alzheimer´s disease.

Bibliography:

Moreno González, Inés. Tabaco y demencia. Mente y Cerebro. January / February 2014 Nº 64  p. 60-61.