Jellyfish Protein Provides Hope for Dementia Sufferers

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Tuesday, 16 February 2010 21:53

Madison, Wisconsin, February 2, 2010 – It’s a known fact that our brainpower peaks in our mid-twenties and then begins a decline – and we lose up to 50% of our brain’s capacity by the time we reach our mid-fifties. Around the globe there are an estimated 24 million people living with some form of dementia – and those 77 million U.S. citizens born between 1946 and 1964, the famous Baby Boomers, are aging rapidly. Discussion about the problem may be uncomfortable for some, but it’s impossible to avoid. “People are afraid of the unknown and scared of what they are seeing happen to their aging relatives,” says Quincy Bioscience president Mark Underwood. “However, there is hope around the corner, coming from an unlikely ally, a jellyfish protein.” Without a breakthrough in the fight against dementia, the number of people with age-related memory loss could jump to as many as 84 million by the year 2040. Yet just the thought of memory loss - in a loved one, friend, co-worker or, worse yet, ourselves -- makes us terribly uneasy. Unless confronted directly with dementia, we prefer to think of it as "someone else's problem." Hope lies within new technology developed at Quincy Bioscience, a biotech company headquartered in Wisconsin’s capital city. They have developed a way to help keep brain cells alive longer, and hopefully to fight the ravages of dementia. “We have demonstrated keeping brain cells alive in animal tissues, and these techniques cross over, to help with the human mind.” The key component was isolated in a specific species of jellyfish – a protein, the component that allows jellyfish to sting, but which in turn helps human beings to avoid being “stung” by the age-related changes that lead to dementia. Underwood adds, “Our population is ‘graying’ and our citizens living much longer than any previous generation. The fastest growing segment of our population is the over-80 age group, and the odds of suffering from dementia for them are even higher. So we have to act now, to protect our nation’s best resources, our brains.” “The solutions we have been researching can give people some peace. We now know why the brain loses much of its ‘horsepower’ by age 55, and have found a solution in nature to replace this key component,” Underwood continued, referring to his company’s discovery. Quincy Bioscience, a biotechnology company based in Madison, is focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel compounds to fight the aging process. Its products focus on restoring calcium balance related to neurodegenerative disorders and other destructive age-related mechanisms. The company is developing health applications of the jellyfish protein apoaequorin for dietary supplement and pharmaceutical products. Their first product, Prevagen was launched in the fall of 2007 and is intended to supplement the loss of critical calcium-binding proteins depleted in the normal course of healthy aging. For more information about the company please visit www.quincybioscience.com and www.prevagen.com. SOURCE: Quincy Bioscience < Prev   Next >