IIT Guwahati works on device to delay onset of Alzheimer's

Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati is working on a device that can delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease in people of all age.

Guwahati: Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati have stated that they are working out a method which could help reduce the onset of Alzheimer's disease.

"It is a particular device which will create a calibrated electric field and this can be futuristically applied to Alzheimer patients in order to delay the onset of disease in the long term. Scientists are working, it has not been completed yet and the testing is also pending," said Harshal Nemade, Professor of the Electronic and Electrical Engineering.

"We have just completed the In vitro laboratory tests. Now we are going to test it on animals probably on mice. If we are successful then only we will go for human clinical tests," added Professor V Ramakrishnan of the Bio Science and Bio Technology department.

The team proposed the application of a low-voltage electric field, and the use of ‘trojan peptides’ to arrest aggregation of neurotoxic molecules which are associated with short-term memory loss due to Alzheimer’s disease in the brain.

“Upon exposure to the electric field, we could retard the degeneration of nerve cells to an extent of 17 – 35 %. This would translate to about 10 years delay in the onset of the disease”, said Dr. Ramakrishnan.

He also explained Alzheimer's disease is a type of dementia that destroys memory and other important mental functions.