Immediate reversal of Alzheimers

[nbs2]

I don't know much about the papers in the UK, but this article really gives me a lot of hope. I remember my grandfather's battle with the disease was incredibly hard on the whole family.

My wife's grandmother is developing dementia, and I can see it degenerating into Alzheimers. With the more geographically distant family support and her loneliness since her husband died, I am especially worried about her. With all the respect in the world, I think she'd be an ideal candidate for this therapy as I don't think she would be all too disappointed even if the drug ended up killing her.

Edit: I couldn't find the link to the Evening Standard, so that part of my post is irrelevant. I found other stories that corroborate the possibilities of that original story.

Either way - this could be huge, and I hope it leads to significant progress.

 

[themadchemist]

Do you have a link?

 

[nbs2]

Sorry about that. I couldn't find the particular link to the story, but here is a Bloomberg link.

 

[themadchemist]

I'm sorry to hear about your wife's grandmother's dementia (which I should have said in my previous post). I really do hope that we find a good treatment for Alzheimer's soon, for the sake of your wife's grandmother and all those others facing this devastating disease.

Has she been diagnosed with Alzheimer's or any other dementia? You might think of suggesting she go to a neurologist and get checked out. The diagnostic measurements are very imperfect, but it's better than nothing. From the fact that she is socially isolated and recently lost her husband, you should keep in mind that she could be depressed. Depression mimics dementia (http://www.raptor.cvm.umn.edu/healthtalk/topics/alzheimers/home.html). In addition, depression may or may not be a risk factor for dementia, so I would definitely ask her to see a doctor.

As for therapies...I think there are several very interesting drugs in the pipeline right now; I am especially enthusiastic about those that inhibit the production or aggregation amyloid beta (but that may just show my particular biases, more than anything else).

I know a number of people who are pursuing the neuroinflammatory approach, more in line with the drug described here. I tend to think that while neuroinflammation is probably very important to feedback loops that enhance the disease, it isn't at the root of it. But pinning down any cause to Alzheimer's is very controversial.

As for this therapy...The "trial" described is of incredibly poor design. There is no control group, only one patient, and everyone is aware of the treatment. This means that there is a significant chance that you are seeing the placebo effect more than anything else.

I do hope more rigorous trials reveal good results for this drug. Reducing inflammation could definitely help to protect neurons and it seems like there is sound evidence that neuroinflammatory processes have some role in the disease. My suspicion is that "good therapy" will end up being a cocktail including amyloid-beta inhibitors, anti-inflammatories, and maybe even immune therapy to clear existing protein aggregate burden (that is, if we can avoid the encephalopathy that halted the European trial of the so-called Alzheimer's vaccine).