Study: 'Old' drug may slow Alzheimer's decline

ajc.com

By Jeremy Manier
Chicago Tribune

Chicago —- Hope is often scarce in research on Alzheimer's disease, but a study released Tuesday at a Chicago medical conference offered tentative hope for a new way of slowing elderly patients' mental decline.

The preliminary study of 321 Alzheimer's patients from Singapore and Britain found that an old drug, previously used for urinary tract infections and other ailments, reduced the patients' rate of mental loss by 81 percent, based on a standard measure of cognitive performance and memory.

The results require further confirmation, but whatever the outcome, some experts are intrigued by the drug's novel way of attacking the disease.

Scientists say the medication, which goes by the commercial name of "rember," may work by dissolving tangles of a protein that collects in the brain cells of Alzheimer's patients.

If true, the therapy could be the first to stave off an underlying cause of.....read more of

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Laser Destroys Alzheimer's Protein

Alzheimer's and Dementia Weekly
Researchers have found that a technique used to visualize amyloid fibers in the laboratory might have the potential to destroy them in the clinic. The technique involves zapping the fluorescently-tagged fibers with a laser, which can inhibit their growth and degrade them. This study, appearing in this week's JBC, may offer a non-drug alternative to treat amyloid-based disorders like Alzheimer, Parkinson, and Huntington diseases.

Yuji Goto and colleagues had been studying amyloids, dense tangles of protein, to better understand how they form. In an effort to view amyloid formation under a microscope in real-time, they added an amyloid specific dye called thioflavin T (ThT) to the tangles and then hit it with a laser beam to induce fluorescence. Surprisingly, they found that under the right conditions, the laser could actually...read the whole article

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Cure Alzheimer's Fund touts research

By Bill Zlatos
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, November 2, 2008

Research funded by a local foundation might hold promise toward new and better treatments of Alzheimer's disease, officials said.

The Cure Alzheimer's Fund, with offices Downtown and in Boston, gave $3 million to a team at Harvard Medical School in Boston, which combed the human gene map and found four more areas that affect the risk of Alzheimer's disease.

Some of the genes, associated with the most common form of Alzheimer's, appear linked to.....read the whole story

Fatty diet could increase progression of Alzheimer's: Study

Canada.com
Marianne White , Canwest News Service
Published: Tuesday, October 28, 2008
QUEBEC - Eating foods rich in saturated fat and poor in omega-3 fatty acids could contribute to the progression of Alzheimer's disease, a new Canadian study suggests.

The study, published in the latest online edition of Neurobiology of Aging, looked into the effects of a diet high in fat (60 per cent of calorie intake) on mouse brains.

The researchers from Laval University, in Quebec City, compared two neurological markers of the disease, the amyloid-beta and tau proteins found in the brain of Alzheimer's patients.

They found that mice whose diet was high in fat showed.....read the whole story

Blood protein tied to Alzheimer's disease and other dementia, risk

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Low levels of cystatin C -- a blood protein commonly used as a measure of kidney function -- may be a risk factor for the development of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias in elderly men, researchers report.

Cystatin C is produced by nearly all human cells and available in all body fluids. During the past decade, studies have suggested that cystatin C activity in the brain may protect against the development of Alzheimer's disease by inhibiting amyloid-beta -- a protein in the body that forms amyloid plaques in the brain, a key feature of Alzheimer's disease.

To further explore this idea, Dr. Johan Sundelof, of Uppsala University, Sweden, and colleagues examined the association between blood levels of cystatin C and the development....read the whole article

New study confirms that Alzheimer's and other dementias are helped with Ginko Biloba

Market Watch
KARLSRUHE, Germany, Oct 17, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- A new placebo-controlled study in 410 patients suffering from mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease or vascular dementia has demonstrated the efficacy of EGb 761(R). Like the majority of dementia patients encountered in everyday clinical practice, the patients in the study suffered from both cognitive impairment and neuropsychiatric symptoms such as depressed mood, anxiety, irritability or aggression. During the observation period of 24 weeks, EGb 761(R) improved both cognitive functioning and neuropsychiatric symptoms of the patients significantly.
aEURThis study confirms that EGb 761(R) improves cognition as well as...to read the whole story click here

Does Vitamin B improve Alzheimer's?

There information out there about the effect of taking Vitamin B to improve Alzheimer's.

According to medpage Today in an article by By John Gever, Staff Writer, MedPage Today and reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
Published: October 14, 2008, Alzheimer's Disease Not Susceptible to B Vitamins and according to an article on WebMD
Alzheimer's Patients Decline Despite High-Dose Folate, Vitamin B6/B12
By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Health NewsReviewed by Louise Chang, MD
And according to an article WBZ news A new study released Tuesday finds that taking mega-doses of B vitamins does not appear to slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease. However, Boston area researchers are testing some promising new compounds which may do just that.

A trial at Neurocare Center for Research in Newton is testing an experimental antibody which attacks proteins linked to Alzheimer's
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Reversing Alzheimer's disease

KRGG mid Missouri
BACKGROUND: The possibility of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a scary thought for many. Alzheimer's sneaks up on patients and their families, destroying the memories of more than half of all people in the United States over age 85. There are currently two classes of medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat AD, including acetyl cholinesterase inhibitors and glutamate inhibitors, which may be used together or alone. The drugs are designed to treat the symptoms of AD and other factors that may be contributing to memory loss, but they cannot reverse the condition.

A NEW ALZHEIMER'S DRUG? A phase 3 trial of the drug bapineuzumab, a humanized, monoclonal antibody, is currently underway and is providing hope that AD can be not just slowed, but actually reversed. The therapeutic antibody works by binding to and clearing beta-amyloid, an abnormal protein in the brain associated with AD. Specifically, it targets amyloid-beta-42...read the whole article

Patterns: Examining Alzheimer's Disease Related Dementias and Weight Loss

New York Times
Health
Vital Signs
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR

Weight loss may be associated with the onset of Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia in women, but not in men, a new study suggests.

There have been conflicting studies on the association between body weight and the risk for dementia, with some suggesting that obesity in middle age is a risk factor and others showing that weight loss precedes dementia’s onset. This study, which appears in a recent issue of Neurology, examined 481 dementia patients, comparing them with a matched, healthy control group.

The researchers found that women....read the whole article

Findings on Alzheimers and other dementias by Israeli researchers

Israeli21c
By Karin Kloosterman
September 04, 2008

Are you the type of guy who sulks in the office after you've had a blowout with your wife, or are you the one who easily sloughs off family troubles and lets the good times roll? According to Israeli researchers, your reaction to conflict in both the work and home environment -- with your spouse, peers and superior at work -- may determine your risk for Alzheimers and other dementias.

The Israeli research was recently revealed at the International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease in Chicago, and joined a number of insightful research projects on dementia and Alzheimer's around the world......Read the whole article

Any new studies, like this recent Israeli

Clinical Trials: How you can make a difference with Alzheimers and other diseases

(NAPSI)-Many Americans may not realize it, but many of the treatments that save lives today are based on yesterday's clinical trials. Diseases that we are only aware of by name, such as smallpox and polio, have been eliminated because of medical research and testing. Advances in hypertension, diabetes and cancer have been powered by everyday people participating in clinical trials.

What Is A Clinical Trial?

A clinical trial is a process that seeks to answer specific questions with the goal of finding better ways to prevent, screen for, make diagnosis of or treat a disease. This process studies or tests in humans a new procedure (knee replacement), a drug (aspirin), a vaccine (HPV vaccine) or a device (MRI).

Clinical trials are important because they are how scientists can research ways to improve your health and quality of life. They can range from examining the effect of exercise on reducing blood pressure to determining if estrogen can prevent memory loss and Alzheimer's disease in women with a family history of Alzheimer's.

Clinical trials can prove to be crucial...

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Reliable medical news source reveals Alzheimer's disease hope

Medscape Today reports
Tau-Based Alzheimer's Disease Therapy Appears to Arrest Disease Progression, Improve Cognition in Phase 2

Caroline Cassels,
August 1, 2008 (Chicago, Illinois) New research suggests that a treatment that targets neurofibrillary tangles arrests disease progression and improves cognitive function in patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD).

According to investigators, the results of the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2b study of methylthioninium chloride (MTC, Rember), a tau-aggregation inhibitor, mark the first time a tau-based therapy has been shown to have a disease-modifying effect on AD.

"The data from this study strongly suggest that this kind of treatment could halt disease progression at an early Braak stage. In other words, when the pathology is just beginning to kill neurons," said principal investigator Claude Wischik, MB ChB, from Aberdeen University, United Kingdom, and chairman of TauRx Therapeutics that developed the drug.

The phase 2 study, presented for the first time here at ICAD 2008: Alzheimer's Association International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease, involved 321 patients with mild-to-moderate AD from 17 centers in Singapore and the United Kingdom.

The primary objective of the 24-week trial was to compare the effects of oral MTC (at 30, 60, and 100 mg, 3 times per day) and placebo on cognitive function, measured using the Alzheimer's disease assessment scale-cognition (ADAS-cog). This was followed by a 60-week blinded active-treatment extension of the trial.

Among the secondary outcomes were the safety and tolerability of the drug, and the effect of MTC on a range of scales, including the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Clinical Dementia Rating scale, sum of boxes (CDRsb), the Clinical Global Impression of Change (CGIC), the Alzheimer's Disease Functional Assessment and Change Scale (ADFACS), and the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI).

But most important, said Dr. Wischik, the investigators were interested in examining the drug's disease-modifying potential.

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Dementia patients need to be engaged citizens

BY JESSE F. BALLENGER Jesse F. Ballenger is a historian of medicine who teaches in the Science, Technology and Society Program at Penn State University. He is the author of "Self, Senility and Alzheimer's Disease in Modern
July 20, 2008
Advocates of federal funding for Alzheimer's and related dementia research have argued since the late 1970s that unless effective treatment or prevention is found, the health care system will be overwhelmed by the coming explosion of victims from the Baby Boom generation. As a model, they frequently have invoked the eradication of polio."In 1935, a March of Dimes was started. In 1961, less than 30 years later, the last polio epidemic occurred," said Robert Butler, founding director of the National Institute on Aging and a leading advocate of Alzheimer's research, in 1983 congressional testimony. " ... Senility could fall the way polio did, if we invest now." In light of the monumental personal losses and social burdens of Alzheimer's, medical research came to seem a moral imperative. The country's hope was fixed on the inevitability of a medical triumph.But it has been 25 years and about $8 billion of federal money for research since Butler testified.
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New System Detects Alzheimer's and Related Dementias Risk Among Highly Educated Older Adults

ScienceDaily (July 16, 2008) — A different cutoff point on an existing mental function assessment may more effectively assess the risk of Alzheimer's and other dementias in highly educated older adults, according to a new article.

The authors suggest that use of this new cut point may help facilitate early detection of Alzheimer's and related dementias in highly educated individuals. Timely treatment may be particularly important in this population, since individuals with more education tend to decline and die more quickly after they are diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, the authors note.

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Exonhit says EHT 0202 could be 'major therapeutic breakthrough' in Alzheimer's and other dementias

PARIS (Thomson Financial) - ExonHit Therapeutics' EHT 0202 compound could be a 'major therapeutic breakthrough' in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, the company said.
In a preview of a presentation to be given at the International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease in Chicago from July 26 to 31, ExonHit said it is developing two proprietary programmes in Alzheimer's disease.
EHT 0202, currently in phase II of clinical trials, is based on a mechanism to redirect the processing of APP (Amyloid Precursor Protein), which is pivotal in the evolution of Alzheimer's disease, the company said.
The second programme, EHT 206, is in pre-clinical stage and focuses on the development of chemical entities aiming at inhibiting the formation of senile plaques, largely composed of aggregated beta amyloid peptides, the company said.
These plaques play a major role in the loss of cognitive functions in patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease, it said.

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Alzheimer's disease as a case of brake failure?

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – Rutgers researcher Karl Herrup and colleagues at Case Western Reserve University have discovered that a protein that suppresses cell division in brain cells effectively "puts the brakes" on the dementia that comes with Alzheimer's disease (AD). When the brakes fail, dementia results.
This discovery could open the door to new ways of treating Alzheimer's disease, which affects up to half the population over the age of 85.

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