International Conference on
Alzheimers, Dementia and Related Neurodegenerative Diseases

Biography:

Ahed Jumah Alkhatib is working in Department of Forensic Sciences and Toxicology under Faculty of Medicine in Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan.

Abstract:

Alzheimer disease is a disease associated with neurodegenerative nature. We look for this disease in depth and think that functional alterations in white matter precede the clinical onset of Alzheimer disease. In other words, it is a matter of brain ageing that occur by years (may be 5 years) before Alzheimer disease had been developed. This period is characterized by depression, which partly may due to memory declining episodes. It was interestingly found that patients with diabetes are more likely to develop Alzheimer disease.  We have found using experimental animal models that rats with diabetes exhibited functional abnormalities in white matter. In other words, we found two biomarkers with different expressions; the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) was highly expressed in white matter of diabetic rats compared with expression of iNOS in grey matter of the same group (p=0.000). On the other hand,  the expression of heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) exhibited different biological reactivity in which its expression was significantly decreased in white matter compared with that in grey matter of the same group (p=0.000). The phenomenon of varying expressions of the two markers was also observed in experimental models of Parkinson disease. In another study using brains of persons who died because of traumatic brain injury (TBJ), we showed high expression of iNOS. Our philosophy in realizing the concept of time implies that time is a series of events rather than a continuous movement or flux of time proceedings, and this understanding may help us in reversing the biological and pathological events of a disease. In other words, we may ask the following question: what will be the state of brain if we can reverse the biological events to the point before the disease had started? The answer may be surprised! This is the role of natural anti-oxidants. We have administered some medical herbs into animal models in our experiments and surprisingly found that the use of Urtica pilulifera  had signaling effects and interferes with cellular processes through decreasing the expression of iNOS,, and increasing the expression of Hsp70. We also found that the use of Ammi visnaga had signaling effects and lowered the expression of p53 i n the heart tissue of rats exposed to different models of smoking. We have previously found that exercise training helps in both neurogenesis and angiogenesis in brains of rats with Parkinson disease. Taken together, the use of natural antioxidants may help patients with Alzheimer disease to overcome depression and memory problems.