Cortisol, “the Stress Hormone” Is The Cause Of Alzheimer’s And Where Do We Go From Here?

Feb. 7, 2010 - PRLog -- The purpose of this presentation is to provide evidence that Cortisol initiates and participates in the main changes in the brain of an Alzheimer's patient. Next I would document that anti cortisol / cortisol modulating drugs when used in AD patients can induce substantial improvements and evidence that KRONOS IV is a cortisol modulator. KRONOS IV is also an activator of the inactive endogenous stem cells that are lying dormant at the door of the hippocampus, the memory center of the brain where the initial destructive action of AD takes place.  Under the stimulus of KRONOS IV, these cells are coming back to life, go through a process of neurogenesis, become neurons and help repair or rebuild the hippocampus, badly damaged by the disease. That would translate into slowing down, stopping or recovering cognitive functions lost to AD.
As such KRONOS IV has a dual action, i.e. it counteracts cortisol, the cause of Alzheimer’s and repairs the symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

CORTISOL IS THE CAUSE OF ALZHEIMER’S
Cortisol is a hormone manufactured by the adrenal glands, located on the top of the kidneys. Cortisol helps the individual cope with every day stress by temporarily increasing its synthesis, also increasing glucose and other defense factors and releases them in the circulatory system. When the stress has been dealt with, it returns back to normal levels.  However when the stress lasts for weeks, months or longer Cortisol that went up initially, does not go down and becomes a most destructive agent to cells, tissues and organs and next “stress diseases” would set in. Cortisol was found to be elevated in Alzheimer’s but what is strange, is that scientists from all over the world knew about that and yet they couldn’t make up their minds if “high” cortisol is the cause or the result of the disease. We are providing herewith strong evidence that cortisol is the cause of AD and not the result.
Alzheimer’s has three main identifying features.
1.   The beta amyloid a glue-like formation found outside and around neurons cells that are the main component of the brain
2.   Neurofibrillary tangles forming inside the neurons.
3.   An overall atrophy/shrinking of the brain
1. The beta amyloid is manufactured under direct cortisol stimulus and starts initially as an amorphous blog “the amyloid precursor plaque” (APP).  Separately but still under cortisol stimulation a number of enzymes are being manufactured. We would deal only with two of them, the beta secretase (BACE) and the gamma secretase. These enzymes start chipping at the APP blog, through a cleavage process and the end result is the APP becomes the beta amyloid plaque, a glue-like formation which is the signature card of Alzheimer’s on MRI’s.
2. Under the concerted attack from outside by the beta secretases and from inside by the neurofibrillary tangles the neurons die by the millions and the disease progresses.
At the present time two major pharmaceutical companies are concentrating their efforts into developing treatments focused on the beta amyloid and secretases.
One is ELAN Pharmaceuticals a division of the Irish biotechnology firm ELAN Corporation which is developing METABOLIC, a plaque modifying drug intended apparently to dissolve the plaque and Schering-Plough developing a new class of secretase inhibitors. While these companies and others are concentrating their efforts against the  destructive compounds beta amyloid, secretases and others that are manufactured under cortisol stimulus, KRONOS IV action is directed against the cause namely against the “high” cortisol itself through a cortisol modulating action that tends to keep cortisol under normal limits. It is tempting to speculate that without cortisol stimulation there would be no beta amyloid or secretases.
3. Overall shrinkage/ atrophy of the brain occurs in two phases namely the initial destruction of the hippocampus followed by the atrophy of the brain. Hippocampus is an area of the brain that stores all the information received during a life time, it is the memory / computer of the brain. The cortisol onslaught starts by the destruction of the defense mechanism of the hippocampus the cortisol receptors protecting it and then it proceeds to the destruction of the hippocampus itself. At that moment all the memory accumulated during a life time disappears and the Alzheimer’s patient becomes a stranger in this world. Subsequently, a cortisol induced atrophy takes place and the whole brain shrinks. This type of atrophy is reversible in the sense that under cortisol modulating drugs the brain returns to normal size.  It is too little, too late.
The presentation before is not intended to represent all changes occurring in an Alzheimer’s patients brain, there are dozens even hundreds of them, but is intended to give the reader an outline of the major events.
(For the continuation of this presentation, which includes papers by Dr. Sapse published in peer review medical journals, please visit our website www.kronosiv.com and click on Cortisol is the cause of Alzheimer’s)

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ESAI is dedicated to the research of endogenous stem cell activation with special focus on the activation of dormant stem cells in the treatment of Alzheimer’s.