Alzheimer’s Drug May Actually Reverse The Progress Of The Disease

A new method acting for detecting the levels of amyloid protein in the brain , a central feature of speech of Alzheimer ’s Disease , lets researchers figure out if a drug is reducing their prevalence , as one new drug has done . But there ’s a catch .

Alzheimer ’s is one of the most terrific disease out there , since it leaves people physically healthy but mentally ravaged . research worker have long believed that amyloid plaques either cause Alzheimer ’s or are a key factor , and a lot of money has pass into researching drugs that reduce the prevalence of these plaque . So it ’s a great cause for celebration that bapineuzumab , a drug now being develop by Elan Corp. and now own by Johnson & Johnson , showed an ability to reduce amyloid brass in 28 patients .

At the end of the 18 - calendar month sketch period , the patients had 25 percent less amyloid brass than a control group . And the bapineuzumab patients in reality had less plaques than they had at the start of examination .

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But really , there are two catch here . The first is that bapineuzumab can have dangerous side effects — in high spirits doses can have ill core , as early tests found , and two patient in the current study had cerebral oedema triggered by water system on the head . But it fathom like the side - effects are manageable , and it may be just a matter of finding the veracious dosage .

The grown snatch is , we still do n’t know if amyloid plaques are a movement or merely a symptom of Alzheimer ’s disease . A with child and growing number of researchers believe the true reason of Alzheimer ’s is the tangles of tau protein that also pile up in the brains of Alzheimer ’s sufferer . So it ’s possible that the decade of research into drugs that can reduce amyloid plaque will twist out to have been a unsighted skittle alley . ( Or it ’s possible that you need to attack both amyloid plaques and tau maze , jointly . ) It ’s renowned that this latest study did n’t actually track the mental functioning of the patient whose memorial tablet were reduced .

In any case , whether bapineuzumab turn out to be a admiration drug , or a beat remnant , the real discovery here is the development of a method acting of assess a patient ’s number of amyloid brass — something we could only do after death , via autopsy , until now . Researchers were able to use a radiotracer called Pittsburgh chemical compound B , which latches on to amyloid plaques in the encephalon , and then pass over it using PET scans . That could also be a worthful symptomatic instrument , although it ’s not frightfully utile until we actually have a treatment that works . [ NJ.comandPhysOrg ]

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