In the year 1901, a woman called Auguste was taken to a medical asylum in Frankfurt. Auguste was delusional and couldn't remember even the most basic details of her life. Her doctor was called Alois. Alois didn't know how to help Auguste, but he watched over her until, sadly, she passed away in 1906. After she died, Alois performed an autopsy and found strange plaques and tangles in Auguste's brain -- the likes of which he'd never seen before.
1901.urtean, Auguste deituriko emakume bat, babes-etxe batera eraman zen Frankfurt-en. Auguste burutik jota zegoen eta ezin zen bere bizitzako xehetasun oinarrikoenetaz gogoratu. Bere sendagileak Alois zuen izena. Aloisek ez zekien nola lagundu Auguste, baina zaindu egin zuen zoritxarrez, 1906ean hil zen arte. Hil ondoren, Aloisek autopsia egin zion eta plaka eta korapilo arraroak topatu zituen Augusteren burmuinean aurretik inoiz ikusi gabe zituenak.
Now here's the even more striking thing. If Auguste had instead been alive today, we could offer her no more help than Alois was able to 114 years ago. Alois was Dr. Alois Alzheimer. And Auguste Deter was the first patient to be diagnosed with what we now call Alzheimer's disease. Since 1901, medicine has advanced greatly. We've discovered antibiotics and vaccines to protect us from infections, many treatments for cancer, antiretrovirals for HIV, statins for heart disease and much more. But we've made essentially no progress at all in treating Alzheimer's disease.
Orain, hemen dator deigarriena. Auguste egun bizirik egongo balitz, ezingo genioke Aloisek duela 114 urte eskainitako laguntza baina gehiago eman. Alois, Alois Alzheimer doktorea zen. Eta Auguste Deter egun Alzheimer deritzogun gaixotasunarekin diagnostikatu zen lehen gaixoa. 1901etik, medikuntzak asko egin du aurrera. Antibiotiko eta txerto asko aurkitu ditugu infekzioetatik babesteko, hainbat tratamentu minbiziarentzat, antiretrobiralak GIBarentzat, estatinak bihotzeko gaixotasunentzat eta askoz gehiago. Baina funtsean ez dugu ezer aurreratu Alzheimer gaixotasuna tratatzerako orduan.
I'm part of a team of scientists who has been working to find a cure for Alzheimer's for over a decade. So I think about this all the time. Alzheimer's now affects 40 million people worldwide. But by 2050, it will affect 150 million people -- which, by the way, will include many of you. If you're hoping to live to be 85 or older, your chance of getting Alzheimer's will be almost one in two. In other words, odds are you'll spend your golden years either suffering from Alzheimer's or helping to look after a friend or loved one with Alzheimer's. Already in the United States alone, Alzheimer's care costs 200 billion dollars every year. One out of every five Medicare dollars get spent on Alzheimer's. It is today the most expensive disease, and costs are projected to increase fivefold by 2050, as the baby boomer generation ages.
Zientzialari talde batekoa naiz hamarkada batean zehar Alzheimerraren sendagaiaren bila ibili gara. Hortaz, denbora guztian honetan pentsatzen nago. Egun Alzheimerrak 40 milioi pertsona erasotzen ditu mundu mailan. Baina 2050. urterako, 150 milioi pertsona erasoko ditu -- bide batez, zuetako asko hor izango zarete. 85 urtez edo gehiago bizitzeko itxaropena baduzue, Alzheimerra izateko duzuen aukera, bitik bateakoa izango da. Hau da, aukera izugarria izango duzu zure urrezko urteetan Alzheimerra izateko edo Alzheimerra duen lagun edo maite bat zaintzeko. Dagoeneko, Estatu Batuetan soilik, Alzheimerra dutenen zaintzek 200 bilioi dolar kostatzen dute urtero. Medikuntza zaintzan gastatzen den bostena, Alzheimerrean gastatzen da. Egungo gaixotasun garestiena da, eta espero da 2050erako gastuak bostkoiztuko direla, Baby boomer-ak zahartzen doazen heinean.
It may surprise you that, put simply, Alzheimer's is one of the biggest medical and social challenges of our generation. But we've done relatively little to address it. Today, of the top 10 causes of death worldwide, Alzheimer's is the only one we cannot prevent, cure or even slow down. We understand less about the science of Alzheimer's than other diseases because we've invested less time and money into researching it. The US government spends 10 times more every year on cancer research than on Alzheimer's despite the fact that Alzheimer's costs us more and causes a similar number of deaths each year as cancer.
Harrigarria dirudi, baina sinpleki, Alzheimerra gure belaunaldiko erronka mediku eta sozial handienetarikoa da. Baina nahiko gutxi egin dugu konpontzeko. Egun, mundu mailako lehen 10 heriotz arrazoien artean, Alzheimerra da saihestu, sendatu, eta gutxiagotu ezin den bakarra. Alzheimerraren zientziaz beste gaixotasunez baino guxiago dakigu denbora eta diru gutxiago inbertitu delako ikerketan. Estatu Batuetako gobernuak 10 aldiz gehiago gastazen du urtero minbiziaren aurkako ikerketan, Alzheimerrarenean baino Alzheimerrak gastu handiagoa sortzen badu ere eta urteroko heriotza kopurua minbiziaren antzekoa bada ere.
The lack of resources stems from a more fundamental cause: a lack of awareness. Because here's what few people know but everyone should: Alzheimer's is a disease, and we can cure it. For most of the past 114 years, everyone, including scientists, mistakenly confused Alzheimer's with aging. We thought that becoming senile was a normal and inevitable part of getting old. But we only have to look at a picture of a healthy aged brain compared to the brain of an Alzheimer's patient to see the real physical damage caused by this disease. As well as triggering severe loss of memory and mental abilities, the damage to the brain caused by Alzheimer's significantly reduces life expectancy and is always fatal.
Baliabide eskasia oinarrizko zergaiti batetik dator: kontzientzia falta. Hau baita, gutxi batzuk dakiteena eta denok jakin beharko genukeena: Alzheimerra gaixotasun bat da eta sendatu dezakegu. Igaro diren 114 urteetako gehienetan, guztiok, zientzialariak barne, Alzheimerra zahartzearekin nahastu zuten. Petsatzen genuen senil bihurtzea zahartzearen parte ohiko eta saihestezina zela. Baina osasuntsu dagoen eta Alzheimerra duen burmuinei begiratzea aski da gaixotasunak sorturiko kalte fisikoak ikusteko. Oroimen eta abilezia mentalak galtzearekin batera, Alzheimerrak burmuinean sorturiko kalteek nabarmen murrizten dute bizi itxaropena eta beti hilgarriak dira.
Remember Dr. Alzheimer found strange plaques and tangles in Auguste's brain a century ago. For almost a century, we didn't know much about these. Today we know they're made from protein molecules. You can imagine a protein molecule as a piece of paper that normally folds into an elaborate piece of origami. There are spots on the paper that are sticky. And when it folds correctly, these sticky bits end up on the inside. But sometimes things go wrong, and some sticky bits are on the outside. This causes the protein molecules to stick to each other, forming clumps that eventually become large plaques and tangles. That's what we see in the brains of Alzheimer's patients.
Gogoratu Alzheimer doktoreak plaka eta korapilo arraroak aurkitu zituela Augusten burmuinean duela ehun urte. Ia mende batean zehar, ez genuen ideia askorik honi buruz. Egun badakigu proteina molekulaz eginda daudela. Imaginatu proteina molekula bat Origami pieza konplexu batean tolesten den paper zati bat bezala. Zenbait lekuetan, papera itsakorra dago. Eta zuzen tolestuta dagoenean, puntu itsakor hauek barruan bukatzen dute. Baina batzuetan gauzak gaizki doaz, eta zenbait puntu itsaskor kanpoan daude. Honek proteina molekulak elkarren artean itsastea eragiten du, mordoak sortuz eta azkenean, plakak eta korapiloak. Hau da ikusten duguna Alzheimerra dutenen burmuinetan.
We've spent the past 10 years at the University of Cambridge trying to understand how this malfunction works. There are many steps, and identifying which step to try to block is complex -- like defusing a bomb. Cutting one wire might do nothing. Cutting others might make the bomb explore. We have to find the right step to block, and then create a drug that does it.
Azken 10 urteak eman ditugu Cambridgeko Unibertsitatean funtzionamendu oker honen zergaitia ulertu nahian. Pausu asko daude, eta zein pausu blokeatu nahi den identifikatzea zaila da -- bonba bat indargabetzea bezala. Kable bat mozteak agian ez du ezer eragiten. Baina beste batzuk mozteak, agian bonba aztetzea dakar. Blokeatzeko pausu zuzena aurkitu behar dugu, ondoren, hori egiten duen sendagaia sortu.
Until recently, we for the most part have been cutting wires and hoping for the best. But now we've got together a diverse group of people -- medics, biologists, geneticists, chemists, physicists, engineers and mathematicians. And together, we've managed to identify a critical step in the process and are now testing a new class of drugs which would specifically block this step and stop the disease.
Duela gutxi arte, ia beti, kableak mozten egon gara, hoberena itxaroten. Baina orain, pertsona ezberdinen talde bat egin dugu -- mediku, biologo, genetista, kimikari, fisikari, ingeri eta matematikariak. Eta guztiok batera, pauso kritikoa identifikatzea lortu dugu eta orain pauso hori espezifikoki blokeatzen duten sendagai berri batzuekin lanean gaude gaixotasuna gelditzeko.
Now let me show you some of our latest results. No one outside of our lab has seen these yet. Let's look at some videos of what happened when we tested these new drugs in worms. So these are healthy worms, and you can see they're moving around normally. These worms, on the other hand, have protein molecules sticking together inside them -- like humans with Alzheimer's. And you can see they're clearly sick. But if we give our new drugs to these worms at an early stage, then we see that they're healthy, and they live a normal lifespan. This is just an initial positive result, but research like this shows us that Alzheimer's is a disease that we can understand and we can cure.
Orain, azken emaitzak erakutsiko dizkizuet. Gure laborategitik kanpo inork ez du hau ikusi oraindik. Ikus dezagun bideoan zer gertatzen den sendagai berriak zizareetan frogatzean. Hauek zizare osasuntsuak dira, ikus dezakezuenez ohiko moduan mugitzen dira. Zizare hauei berriz, beraien barnean proteina molekulak itsasten ari zaizkie -- Alzheimerdun gizakietan bezala. Eta argi ikusi dezakezue gaixo daudela. Baina sedagai berri hau gaixotasunaren fase goizitarretan emanez, osasuntsu daudela ikus dezakegu, eta ohiko moduan bizi direla. Hau hasierako emaitza positibo bat besterik ez da, baina horrlelako ikerketek Alzheimerra ulertu eta sendatu dezakegula azaltzen dute.
After 114 years of waiting, there's finally real hope for what can be achieved in the next 10 or 20 years. But to grow that hope, to finally beat Alzheimer's, we need help. This isn't about scientists like me -- it's about you. We need you to raise awareness that Alzheimer's is a disease and that if we try, we can beat it. In the case of other diseases, patients and their families have led the charge for more research and put pressure on governments, the pharmaceutical industry, scientists and regulators. That was essential for advancing treatment for HIV in the late 1980s. Today, we see that same drive to beat cancer. But Alzheimer's patients are often unable to speak up for themselves. And their families, the hidden victims, caring for their loved ones night and day, are often too worn out to go out and advocate for change. So, it really is down to you. Alzheimer's isn't, for the most part, a genetic disease. Everyone with a brain is at risk. Today, there are 40 million patients like Auguste, who can't create the change they need for themselves. Help speak up for them, and help demand a cure.
114 urte zain egon ondoren, itxaropen erreal eta behin betiko bat dago hurrengo 10 edo 20 urteetan lortuko duguna. Baina azken itxaropen hau handitzeko, Alzheimerra garaitzeko, laguntza behar dugu. Hau ez da ni bezalako zientzialarien gauza, zuen gauza da. Alzheimerrari buruzko kontzientzia handiagotu behar dugu eta saiatzen bagara, garaitu dezakegu. Beste gaixotasun batzuen kasuan, gaixoek eta euren familiek indarra egin dute ikerketa handiagotzeko eta presioa ezarri gobernu eta industria farmazeutikoan, zientzialarieta eta arau-egileetan. Hau ezinbestekoa izan zen GIBaren aurkako tratamentuan aurrera egiteko 1980an. Egun, berdina ikusten dugu minbiziaren kasuan. Baina askotan Alzheimerra duten gaixoak ez dira eurengatik hitz egiteko gai. Eta beraien familiak, ezkutuko bitimak, bere maiteak gau eta egun zaintzen, askotan nekatuegi daude kanpora joan eta aldaketak eskatzeko. Hortaz, benetan zuen esku dago. Alzheimerra gehien bat ez da gaixotasun genetikoa. Burmuina duen edonork du arriskua. Egun, Auguste bezalako 40 milioi gaixo daude, beraiek behar duten aldaketa sortu ezin dezaketenak. Lagundu beraiengatik hitz egiten eta lagundu tratamentua eskatzen.
Thank you.
Eskerrik asko.
(Applause)
(Txaloak)