Progranulin and Frontotemporal Dementia
Medical News Today provides surprisingly good news about a common age-related condition: Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD), "the second most common form of dementia after Alzheimer's disease, is a group of brain disorders that affect the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain ... What we've found is a little bit different than what we've found in other common neurodegenerative diseases. What we're looking at here is simply the loss of progranulin that is causing the disease ... One copy of the progranulin gene has been knocked out by the mutation, and therefore we have less progranulin produced, which is enough on its own to cause the disease." We don't expect neurodegenerative conditions to be easily prevented or cured - but every so often something goes our way. "Replacing progranulin is the obvious therapeutic approach ... That might be possible through gene therapy."
Link: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=47449