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.
Leta 1901 so žensko po imenu Auguste odpeljali v v bolnišnico v Frankfurtu. Auguste je imela blodnje in se ni spominjala osnovnih podrobnosti o svojem življenju. Njen zdravnik se je imenoval Alois. Alois ni vedel, kako naj pomaga Auguste, a jo je opazoval, dokler ni leta 1906 na žalost preminila. Po njeni smrti je Alois opravil obdukcijo in našel čudne plake in vozle v njenih možganih - takih ni še nikoli videl.
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.
Še bolj neverjetno pa je to: če bi bila Auguste živa danes, ji ne bi mogli pomagati nič bolj, kot ji je Alois pred 114 leti. Alois je bil dr. Alois Alzheimer. In Auguste Deter je bila prva bolnica z diagnozo, ki ji danes pravimo Alzheimerjeva bolezen. Od leta 1901 je medicina ogromno napredovala. Odkrili smo antibiotike in cepiva, ki nas ščitijo pred infekcijami, mnogo zdravil za raka, antiretrovirusna zdravila za HIV, statine za bolezni srca in veliko več. A nismo dosegli skoraj nobenega napredka pri zdravljenju Alzheimerjeve bolezni.
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.
Sem del skupine znanstvenikov, ki že več kot desetletje išče zdravilo za Alzheimerjevo bolezen. Zato o tem razmišljam ves čas. Alzheimerjevo bolezen ima 40 milijonov ljudi po svetu. Leta 2050 bo takih 150 milijonov ljudi - kar bo, mimogrede, vključevalo mnoge izmed vas. Če upate, da boste živeli do 85. leta ali dlje, je vaša možnost za Alzheimerjevo bolezen 50-odstotna. Ali drugače rečeno, možno je, da boste v jeseni življenja trpeli za Alzheimerjem ali pa skrbeli za bližnjega z Alzheimerjem. Samo v Združenih državah stane oskrba za bolnike z Alzheimerjem 200 milijard dolarjev letno. Vsak peti dolar iz programa Medicare gre za Alzheimerjevo bolezen. Je najdražja bolezen našega časa in stroški naj bi se do leta 2050 povečali za petkrat, saj se generacija "baby boom" stara.
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.
Morda vas bo presenetilo, a preprosto rečeno je Alzheimer eden največjih medicinskih in družbenih izzivov naše generacije. A glede tega smo naredili zelo malo. Med prvimi desetimi vzroki smrti po svetu je Alzheimer edina bolezen, ki se je ne da preprečiti, pozdraviti, niti upočasniti. Manj razumemo o mehanizmih Alzheimerjeve bolezni kot o drugih boleznih, ker smo v raziskovanje vložili manj časa in denarja. Vlada ZDA vsako leto nameni desetkrat več za raziskave raka kot za Alzheimerja, kljub temu da nas Alzheimer stane več in vsako leto povzroči podobno število smrti kot rak.
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.
Pomanjkanje virov izvira iz bolj temeljnega vzroka: pomanjkanje ozaveščenosti. Ker malo ljudi to ve, a bi morali vsi: Alzheimer je bolezen in lahko jo pozdravimo. Zadnjih 114 let so vsi, vključno z znanstveniki, napačno zamenjali Alzheimerja za staranje. Mislili smo, da je senilnost običajen in neizogiben del staranja. A samo pogledati moramo sliko zdravih možganov v primerjavi z možgani bolnika z Alzheimerjem, da bi videli dejansko fizično škodo, ki jo povzroči. Ta bolezen povzroča hudo izgubo spomina in mentalnih sposobnosti, hkrati pa poškodba možganov, ki jo povzroča, zmanjša pričakovano življenjsko dobo in je vedno smrtna.
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.
Spomnite se, da je Dr. Alzheimer našel plake in vozliče v možganih Auguste pred več kot stoletjem. Skoraj stoletje nismo o njih vedeli skoraj nič. Danes vemo, da so sestavljene iz molekul beljakovin. Zamislite si molekulo beljakovine kot kos papirja, ki se ponavadi zloži v zapleten origami. Na papirju so lepljive točke. In ko se pravilno zloži, te lepljive točke pristanejo v notranjosti. A včasih gre nekaj narobe in te lepljive točke pristanejo zunaj. To povzroči, da se molekule beljakovin zlepijo skupaj in oblikujejo skupke, ki sčasoma postanejo veliki plaki in vozliči. To vidimo v možganih bolnikov z Alzheimerjem.
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.
Zadnjih deset let smo na Univerzi v Cambridgeu poskušali razumeti, kako se ta napaka zgodi. Mnogo korakov je in težko je odkriti, kateri korak je treba blokirati - kot onesposobljanje bombe. Prerez ene žice morda ne bo naredil nič. Prerez drugih bo morda povzročil eksplozijo. Najti moramo pravi korak in ga blokirati in nato najti zdravilo, ki to stori.
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.
Do pred kratkim smo večinoma samo rezali žice in upali na najboljše. A sedaj imamo raznoliko skupino ljudi, zdravnike, biologe, genetike, kemike, fizike, inženirje in matematike. In skupaj nam je uspelo določiti kritičen korak v tem procesu in sedaj testiramo novo vrsto zdravil, ki naj bi blokirala ta korak in ustavila bolezen.
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.
Naj vam sedaj pokažem naše najnovejše rezultate. Nihče izven našega laboratorija jih še ni videl. Poglejmo videe o tem, kaj se je zgodilo, ko smo preizkusili to zdravilo v črvih. To so zdravi črvi in lahko vidite, da se normalno premikajo. Ti črvi pa imajo v sebi molekule beljakovin, ki se lepijo skupaj - kot ljudje z Alzheimerjem. In lahko vidite, da so bolni. A če damo nova zdravila tem črvom v zgodnjem stadiju, lahko vidimo, da so zdravi in živijo normalno dolgo. To je samo prvi pozitiven rezultat, a take raziskave nam pokažejo, da je Alzheimer bolezen, ki jo lahko razumemo in zdravimo.
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.
Po 114 letih čakanja je tu končno upanje, da lahko kaj dosežemo v naslednjih 10 ali 20 letih. Da bo to upanje raslo, da bi končno premagali Alzheimerja, potrebujemo pomoč. Tu ne gre za znanstvenike, kot sem jaz - gre za vas. morate ozaveščati druge, da je Alzheimer bolezen in da jo lahko premagamo, če se potrudimo. V primerih drugih bolezni so bolniki in njihove družine navijali za več raziskav in izvajali pritisk na vlade, farmacevtsko industrijo, znanstvenike in odločevalce. To je bilo ključno pri odkrivanju zdravila za HIV v poznih 80-ih letih. Danes vidimo isti zanos v bitki proti raku. A bolniki z Alzheimerjem pogosto ne morejo govoriti v svojem imenu. In njihove družine, skrite žrtve, zanje skrbijo noč in dan in so pogosto preveč izmučene, da bi se zavzemale za spremembe. Torej je odvisno od vas. Alzheimer načeloma ni genetska bolezen. Vsakdo z možgani je ogrožen. Danes imamo 40 milijonov bolnikov, kot je bila Auguste, ki ne morejo poskrbeti za spremembe, ki jih potrebujejo. Pomagajte jim spregovoriti in pomagajte zahtevati zdravilo.
Thank you.
Hvala.
(Applause)
(Aplavz)