Scientists from all over the world are trying to find new approaches to Alzheimer’s disease, and two Brazilian laboratories have been standing out in this race. Recently, researchers Mychael Lourenço, from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), and Wagner Brum, from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), were awarded by international organizations for their contributions to the topic.
Lourenço was awarded the ALBA-Roche Prize for Excellence in Neuroscience Research, offered by the Alba organization to mid-career scientists who have already achieved exceptional accomplishments. Brum was selected as the Next “One to Watch” (“The next one to watch”, in loose translation), an award given by the American organization Alzheimer’s Association to promising young scientists.
Alzheimer’s disease is considered one of the greatest challenges in medicine, as few treatments have proven effective in slowing its progression to date, and no cure has been found.
The most recognized symptom is loss of recent memory, but as the disease progresses, the patient develops difficulties in reasoning, communication, and even movement, becoming completely dependent.
Data on the Brazilians
UFRJ professor Mychael Lourenço has been studying Alzheimer’s since his undergraduate degree in Biology, honing this interest during his master’s, doctorate, and post-doctorate, until assuming a teaching position and founding the Lourenço Lab, a research group dedicated to dementias.
“I’ve always been interested in mysterious things. For example: ‘how does the brain work?’. I still don’t have an answer today, but it continues to be a great object of interest,” he jokes.
But Lourenço is not driven solely by curiosity.
“We have around 40 million people with Alzheimer’s disease in the world today. Of these, about 2 million must be in Brazil, a number that may be underestimated due to health access and diagnosis problems. And we have a population that is aging more and more, but most studies are done in the Global North. We need data to understand the disease in Brazil.”
The researcher explains that since Alois Alzheimer described the disease in 1906, it was already known that it causes plaques in the brain, but only in the 1980s did scientists discover that these plaques are composed of beta-amyloid, protein fragments that accumulate for some reason.
However, drugs effective at removing these plaques have not managed to reverse the disease, showing a gap between cause and effect that science still needs to bridge.
“We’re still trying to understand what makes the brain vulnerable and develop the disease, including looking at what we call resilience to Alzheimer’s. There are people like Fernanda Montenegro, for example, 96 years old and completely lucid and active. And there are people who develop beta-amyloid plaques in the brain without showing cognitive symptoms. What makes them different?”
In parallel, the Lourenço Lab is also testing substances in animals that may prevent the accumulation of beta-amyloid and another protein called tau, which is also involved in plaque formation.
“These proteins likely tend to accumulate, but cells have a natural degradation system called the proteasome. In Alzheimer’s, it’s as if the garbage collection service stopped working. So, boosting the activity of this system could be a way to improve that flow.”
Early Diagnosis
Another line of research focuses on early diagnosis of the disease, which could allow it to be controlled before causing irreversible brain damage.
Lourenço coordinates a study seeking to determine if biological markers found in the blood of people with Alzheimer’s in other countries are also valid for Brazilians, and whether our population has any specific markers.
“Alzheimer’s disease doesn’t appear when symptoms do: it starts developing much earlier. So, we’re trying to capture that window when the disease is developing but symptoms haven’t yet appeared clearly.”
“We may never cure patients already in advanced stages. But we can halt the disease before that,” he adds.
Biomarker research also put physician Wagner Brum in the spotlight. Today, he is pursuing his doctorate at UFRGS and is a researcher at the Zimmer Lab, an Alzheimer’s research group. His scientific passion emerged early.
“I studied at a very traditional public school in Rio Grande do Sul called Fundação Liberato, which hosts Latin America’s largest science fair. I grew up with my mother taking me to that fair, so by high school, I was already doing research. In college, I chose UFRGS for its strong research tradition, where I could develop as a physician-researcher.”
Brum’s most prominent work was developing protocols for the clinical implementation of a blood test that diagnoses Alzheimer’s based on the presence of the p-tau217 protein, one of the disease’s main biomarkers.
Although the test proved accurate in research, reading standards were needed for routine diagnostic use. That’s what Brum accomplished.
“In patients with very high or very low levels, we could clearly tell from the blood test alone whether they have the disease. But 20% to 30% fall in an intermediate range and need additional testing.”
From the Lab to the SUS
According to Brum, the protocol boosts the test’s reliability and is already in use by labs in Europe and the United States. Unfortunately, in Brazil, only a few private labs have adopted it. The Zimmer Lab continues its work, aiming for large-scale disease diagnosis.
“For implementation in the SUS, our main goal, studies must show that these tests improve diagnostic confidence and alter patient treatment. That’s what they’ve done in other countries.”
Such trials are underway in Rio Grande do Sul and will expand to other Brazilian cities. Brum notes that Alzheimer’s is currently diagnosed mainly from symptoms, via clinical assessment and imperfect tests.
“The most common are structural imaging like CT or MRI, which show brain atrophy. But aging and other neurodegenerative diseases also cause atrophy. Alzheimer’s has more typical patterns, but these scans aren’t specific.”
The two precise existing tests are lumbar puncture for cerebrospinal fluid analysis and Positron Emission Tomography (PET-CT), but both are expensive and hard to access.
Brum believes blood tests could simplify diagnosis and boost physician confidence. In the future, biomarkers might detect the disease before symptoms.
“It’s great to see the international research community notice and value our work. Many people in Brazil do excellent research across fields and deserve recognition.”
The two award-winning researchers work with funding from institutions like the Rio de Janeiro State Research Foundation (Faperj), Serrapilheira Foundation, and Idor Pioneer Science Institute.
Source: Agência Brasil