Alzheimer's Research Update 2-1-12
91Alzheimer's Treatment
Science Daily January 9 reports on positive results from an experimental treatment which appears to bring about a reversal of Alzheimer's symptoms. The study was reported in the Journal of Neuroinflammation. Marked improvement was achieved withing moments of the administration of a therapeutic molecule. If this promising development proves to be effective it will of major importance to millions who are afflicted by this previously virtually undreatable condition.
The experimental treatment focuses on a substance that regulates the brain's transmission of neural impulses in the brain. When this soluble protein or cytokine TNF is present in excessive concentration it interferes with the brain's neural functioning. The experimental breakthrough was achieved by the injection of an anti-TNF therapeutic called etanercept (trade name Enbrel). Enbrel or etanercept is currently available and approved for treatment of other conditions. Here's a link to the Science Daily report.
COMMENT From NYT: "New diagnostic tests are leading to a moral dilemma. Since there is no
treatment for Alzheimer’s, is it a good thing to tell people, years
earlier, that they have this progressive degenerative brain disease or
have a good chance of getting it?" 12-17-10
2-1-12NYTimes "Faulty Protein is Like a Virus in Alzheimers" Gina Kolata
- Faulty Protein is Like a Virus in Alzheimers, Studies Find - NYTimes.com
Discovery in studies of mice solves a mystery surrounding the disease’s grim march and has immediate implications for developing treatments, researchers said. Instead of viruses or bacteria, what is being spread is a distorted protein known as tau.
9-13-11NYTimes "A Squirt of Insulin May Delay Alzheimers"
- Squirts of Insulin May Help Those With Early Alzheimers - NYTimes.com
An intriguing study suggests that aerosolized insulin may help people who are in the early stages of Alzheimers.
8-23-11NYTimes--Tennessee Basketball Coach Reveals Dementia Diagnosis
- Tennessees Summitt Reveals Dementia Diagnosis - NYTimes.com
Pat Summitt, the Tennessee womens basketball coach, said she hoped to manage the disease and planned to coach in the coming season.
4-3-11NYTimes--Gina Kolata--"Genetic Component in Alzheimers Study"
- Alzheimers Studies Show Genetic Links - NYTimes.com
The two largest studies of Alzheimers disease led to the discovery of five genes that provide intriguing new clues to why it strikes and how it progresses.
12-18-10NYTimes---Moral Dilemma Over Early Alzheimer's Test
- Early Alzheimer's Detection--Poses a Moral Dilemma
The new diagnostic tests are leading to a moral dilemma. Since there is no treatment for Alzheimers, is it a good thing to tell people, years earlier, that they have this progressive degenerative brain disease or have a good chance of getting it?
9-1-10NYTimes--Protein Discovery May Set New Target for Alzheimer's Drugs
- Protein Discovery May Result in New Alzheimer's Drugs
The finding, to be published Thursday in the journal Nature, reveals a new potential drug target that, according to the prevailing hypothesis of the genesis of Alzheimers, could slow or halt the devastating effects of this now untreatable disease.
8-18-10NYTimes--
- Doubt on Tactic in Alzheimer's Battle
The failure of a promising Alzheimers drug in clinical trials highlights the gap between diagnosis where real progress has recently been made and treatment of the disease...It was that the drug actually made them worse, the company said.
8-16-10NYTimes--Eli Lily Stops Tests of Alzheimer's Drug
- Alzheim'er's drug made patients worse so Eli Lily stopped the tests.
In yet another setback in efforts to treat Alzheimers disease, Eli Lilly & Company announced on Tuesday that it had halted development of an experimental treatment after the compound actually made patients worse in two late-stage clinical trials.
8-11-10NYTimes--Rare Sharing of Data Leads to Progress on Alzheimer's
- Alzheimer's Data Sharing Brings Progress
Scientists and executives from the NIH, the FDA, the drug and medical-imaging industries, universities and nonprofits joined in a project that had no precedent: a collaborative effort to find the biological markers of the progression of Alzheimer's.
8-10-10National Public Radio--Sorting When Early Memory Loss Signals Big Thrreat
- Early Memory Loss
1 million people a year begin a mental slide called mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, with forgetfulness that's somewhere between healthy aging and Alzheimer's. Now this gray zone is evolving, with growing study of techniques to help predict...
NYTimes 8-10-10Spinal fluid test predicts Alzheimer's
- Spinal Fluid Test Predicts Alzheimer's
Researchers report that a spinal fluid test can be 100 percent accurate in identifying patients with significant memory loss who are on their way to developing Alzheimers disease.
Hope on the Horizon for Alzheimer's Treatment
Enbrel
Enbrel is currently FDA approved for rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthrytis, alkylosing spondilitis and chronic plaque psoriasis. The drug is quite expensive and can have serious side effects. More linked below.
Enbrel
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Thanks! This could be big if the experimental results prove true and can be translated in to treatment for Alzheimer's sufferers.
This is good news.
Excellent info - Not quite as controversial as I like to go for hehe, but great stuff. I worked in a hospital in the US and in the nurses office they had a sign on the wall, which has since become one of my favorites:
"They tell you that when you get old, you will lose your mind - What they don't tell you is - You won't miss it."
My grandmother had Alzheimer's. She was in a nursing home the last time I saw her. Before that, my sister had cared for her, and had some problems. Things that were totally uncharacteristic of my strict but wonderful grandmother. She cared for me and my brother after my mother died too early. I love the thought of a Cure. bjp
Alzheimer's patients can become quite hard to deal with.
testing
I may have alzheimers
but at least I don't have alzheimers
Ha! How about E.D.?
About 1 million people a year begin a mental slide called mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, with forgetfulness that's somewhere between healthy aging and Alzheimer's disease. Now this gray zone is undergoing an evolution, with growing study of techniques to help predict which MCI patients may be on a path to later dementia — and who shouldn't worry.
Many doctors aren't waiting. A study published in the journal Neurology last week found 70 percent of neurologists say they prescribe Alzheimer's medications to at least some of their MCI patients, hoping the drugs will slow their decline. That's a startling number considering there's no proof yet the drugs can do that even if doctors knew who's most at risk.
So, it's becoming more and more clear that Alzheimer's starts ravaging the brain at least a decade before memory problems appear. Thus stalling it may require treating the earliest symptoms, just as preventing a stroke begins with treating high blood pressure.
In 2003, a group of scientists and executives from the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, the drug and medical-imaging industries, universities and nonprofit groups joined in a project that experts say had no precedent: a collaborative effort to find the biological markers that show the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in the human brain.
In yet another setback in efforts to treat Alzheimer’s disease, Eli Lilly & Company announced on Tuesday that it had halted development of an experimental treatment after the compound actually made patients worse in two late-stage clinical trials.
NYTimes 8-16-10
The failure of a promising Alzheimer’s drug in clinical trials highlights the gap between diagnosis — where real progress has recently been made — and treatment of the disease.
It was not just that the drug, made by Eli Lilly, did not work — maybe that could be explained by saying the patients’ illness was too far advanced when they received it. It was that the drug actually made them worse, the company said. And the larger the dose they took, the worse were patients’ symptoms of memory loss and inability to care for themselves. Not only that, the drug also increased the risk of skin cancer.
So when Lilly announced on Tuesday that it was ending its large clinical trials of that drug, semagacestat, researchers were dismayed.
ttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/health/19alzheimers.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=gina kolata&st=cse
In a year when news about Alzheimer’s disease seems to whipsaw between encouraging and disheartening, a new discovery by an 84-year-old scientist has illuminated a new direction.
The new diagnostic tests are leading to a moral dilemma. Since there is no treatment for Alzheimer’s, is it a good thing to tell people, years earlier, that they have this progressive degenerative brain disease or have a good chance of getting it?
“I am grappling with that issue,” Dr. Rafii said. “I give them the diagnosis — we are getting pretty good at diagnosis now. But it’s challenging because what do we do then?”
Thank you for this well-written hub. Alzheimer's affected both of my maternal grandmother's, so needless to say, everything about the illness interests me.
voted up/very useful
Thanks for your comment.
"The two largest studies of Alzheimers disease led to the discovery of five genes that provide intriguing new clues to why it strikes and how it progresses."
Gina Kolata report in the NYTimes 4-3-11 "Alzheimers studies show genetic links"
Pat Summitt, the Tennessee womens basketball coach, said she hoped to manage the disease and planned to coach in the coming season.
A small pilot study has found preliminary evidence that squirting insulin deep into the nose where it travels to the brain might hold early Alzheimer’s disease at bay, researchers said on Monday.
It comes at a time when there are no effective ways to prevent or delay the progress of Alzheimer’s.
I will have to link this to my dementia hub when I get back to my computer. Great update.
Faulty Protein is Like a Virus in Alzheimers, Studies Find - NYTimes.com
Discovery in studies of mice solves a mystery surrounding the disease’s grim march and has immediate implications for developing treatments, researchers said. Instead of viruses or bacteria, what is being spread is a distorted protein known as tau.
Faulty Protein is Like a Virus in Alzheimers, Studies Find - NYTimes.com
Discovery in studies of mice solves a mystery surrounding the disease’s grim march and has immediate implications for developing treatments, researchers said. Instead of viruses or bacteria, what is being spread is a distorted protein known as tau.
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MrMarmalade 4 years ago
Ralph a most valuable informative hub.
We have recently had a very close friend die of Alzheimer's. He really died two years before and it was an harrowing time, for his wife and family. I looked after him on a Friday to allow his wife to out with val for four hours. It was a blessed relief when he died literally.