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Drugs commonly found to help patients with Alzheimer now also turn out to help with osteoporosis. Patients taking donepezil and rivastigmine seemed to be less vulnerable to the risk of hip fractures.
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Researchers will test an experimental drug that could prevent Alzheimer’s disease in people who are genetically slated to develop Alzheimer’s disease but have yet to exhibit symptoms
As part of the National Alzheimer’s Plan, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded a $16 million grant to Banner Alzheimer’s Institute in Arizona to fund the Alzheimer’s Prevention Initiative (API), which will study whether a plaque-fighting treatment can prevent the disease. The trial will take place in Medellín, Colombia as well as select sites in North America. The majority of the study participants will come from an extended family of 5,000 people living in Medellín who are considered part of the world’s largest family affected by Alzheimer’s. The New York Times reports the family members have a specific genetic mutation that causes symptoms of cognitive impairment around age 45, then full dementia around age 51.
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Amyvid is a radiopharmaceutical developed by the Eli Lilly Company to aid in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease by causing previously invisible beta amyloid plaque deposits in the brain to show up in PET scans. The FDA has recently approved Amyvid for clinical use although its use remains somewhat controversial.
Dr. Alois Alzheimer’s discovery of the physical changes in the brain in the early 1900s has caused researchers to focus on the plaque deposits he found in autopsied brains of diseased patients. If the plaque causes the disease, discovering the plaque before a patient’s symptoms worsen could mean closing in on a cure.
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Last Friday, the FDA approved Amyvid, a drug for Alzheimer’s diagnosis that was created and developed by Penn faculty Daniel Skovronsky and Hank Kung. It dyes brain deposits of amyloid plaque, which are correlated with Alzheimer’s disease.
However, the FDA has treaded cautiously, approving Amyvid only for limited uses. If brains scanned with Amyvid test negative, then the patient will be deemed Alzheimer-negative.
Cases where the Amyvid scans test positive will only signify the patient has significant levels of plaque, but will not confirm an Alzheimer’s Disease diagnosis.
Since there is no drug on the market that successfully removes amyloid plaque, Saboury said there should be no rush to market the tracer. How useful can it be for patients to know they are at risk when there is no cure or treatment?
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Researchers believe they have gained key insights on the development and progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
The findings could lead to the development of antibiotic treatments that could prevent the onset of the devastating illness.
Investigators have learned that a key protein, called a tau-protein, transforms from being a critical component of normal brain function to a sinister malformed villain that destroys brain cells.
Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) developed the technology that distinguishes the two tau isoforms — one healthy and one disease-causing. Their research shows that only the disease-causing isoform is found in the neurons of Alzheimer’s patients and is exhibited at a very early stage of disease.
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In the wake of research suggesting a skin-cancer drug may have benefits in treating Alzheimer’s disease, physicians and advocacy groups are getting a flurry of calls from patients seeking to use the drug off-label.
The clamor underscores how urgently patients want solutions to the rising tide of Alzheimer’s. But experts caution that more research is needed to determine whether the drug, bexarotene, is effective in humans at all, not to mention what the dosage should be.
The study, published Thursday in the journal Science, was conducted in mice, and the road to an effective Alzheimer’s treatment is littered with failures that looked promising early on in animals.
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