In a towering, modern building overlooking the Brisbane showgrounds, scientists are so close to a breakthrough in dementia treatments, the optimism is almost palpable.
Under the direction of cellular and molecular neurodegeneration laboratory group leader Associate Professor Tony White, researchers are quietly studying how brain cells react to different treatments at Herston's QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute.
While science still doesn't understand the causes of dementia, experts do know that for existing drugs to be effective they need to penetrate the barrier between the blood and the brain.
And that is proving to be the most difficult aspect of dementia research.
"The brain has a barrier between the blood and the brain to stop anything the brain doesn't want to get in there such as bacteria or toxins, but it also means that drugs can't get into the brain," Dr White says.
"So, we're trying to find ways to open that barrier up and allow the drugs to get in and that's something we're very focused on here.
"There are a lot of people working on different drugs to treat Alzheimer's and dementia but most of those drugs won't get into the brain.
"If we can find a way to open the blood-brain barrier to let drugs go from blood into the brain that will be a major advance in treating Alzheimer's and dementia."
What is dementia?
In a healthy brain, two proteins — amyloid and tau — happily share the space.
But in Alzheimer's sufferers, the compounds combine and start to form plaques on the brain tissue that kill healthy brain cells.
Dr White says these changes in how the proteins interact happen "very early" in life but there is still no way to detect them.
"But by the time you're in your 60s and 70s, we start to see a build-up of amyloid in the brain and tau accumulates inside neurons and these cause the degeneration of brain cells and the inflammation of other cells in the brain.
Dr White's team is inching closer to providing a more hopeful future for the roughly 500,000 people living with dementia in Australia.
He was instrumental in discovering a copper-based drug which removed some of the amyloid plaque that forms on the brain.
That achievement led to a drug which is still in clinical trials.
Dr White's current work with PhD student Joanna Wasielewska is also having success in using ultrasound to get more beneficial drugs into the brain to treat the condition.
While usually a condition that affects adults, there are about 70 diseases which also cause childhood dementia, a devastating diagnosis the QIMR Berghofer team is also focusing on finding answers for.
Tiny organs changing research
In a small room off the main lab sits a fairly innocuous-looking storage unit.
From the outside, it could be confused with a tiny bar fridge but on the inside are small, spinning discs that contain tiny brains.
Grown from the tissue of dementia sufferers, the largest brains measure just 8mm and take up to two months to grow.
It is these small organs that researchers use to test new ways of breaching the blood-brain barrier.
Dr Romal Stewart is in charge of the tiny specimens, which he says need daily attention for the first few weeks of their life.
"For the first two weeks or so, you need to do daily media changes," he says.
"During the start of the pandemic, it was difficult and we were writing letters asking if we could keep coming in to the lab."
Such important research was allowed to continue despite COVID restrictions.
Personal mission for researcher
Dr White began his career in dementia research 30 years ago and just a decade in, tragedy struck when his mother Patricia was diagnosed with the disease in her 70s.
"I worked in the field and understood what was going on. There were no drugs I could suggest that were going to improve her outcome," he said.
"My father, who was looking after my mother at the time would quite often ask about the latest treatment and whether there was anything on the horizon.
"But there was nothing that was going to be able to help her at the time.
"It was a difficult time then because there wasn't anything really much that was positive but I think things are changing now in that we're starting to see some positive outcomes from research."
Future without dementia possible
With a global team of scientists working daily on how to improve treatments for dementia, Dr White says there is "absolutely" hope for a future without the degenerative condition.
"Many decades ago there was no future for people with cancer and when they got diagnosed it was pretty much a death sentence," Dr White says.
"But now there's lots of great treatments for cancer.
"You don't have to slow it by a lot to give people a better quality of life."
Treatment giving hope to younger people
A dementia-free future won't arrive in time for Bridget Smith's father, but she is hopeful it could be something the mother of three gets to enjoy.
Garry Smith was admitted to hospital last year with lung problems but it was there his dementia suddenly and rapidly became impossible to ignore.
"He's forgotten things in his past but certainly not things in his present like me and my boys," Ms Smith said, who works in QIMR Berghofer's communications team, says.
"The research that people like Dr Tony White are doing here is incredible.
"I'm 43. To think dad's so young at 76 to have dementia, I would hope this research while it can't help dad it can perhaps help my generation."
QIMR Berghofer's dementia research team will host a dementia forum this evening from 5–7pm.
A recording of the event will also be posted to qimrberghofer.edu.au.
