MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'alzheimer s disease'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:58:01 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5069802&cid=t_435417_149_f&fid=35776&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpipeline.corante.com%2Farchives%2F2011%2F07%2F26%2Falzheimers_the_news_is_not_getting_better.php Is there something going on with patients in Alzheimer's trials that we didn't expect? There have been reports of an unexpected side effect (vasogenic edema) in several trials, for drugs that work through completely different mechanisms. It makes some sense in the case of antibody-based therapies like bapineuzumab (where this problem first got attention) and solanezumab. After all, the immune system is pretty powerful stuff, and you could certainly imagine these sorts of side effects (either directly or from some effect of clearing out amyloid debris). As those reports indicate, the problem may lessen with time, and may be more severe in patients with the APOE4 allele, a known (but not understood) risk factor for Alzheimer's. But this latest report is for the Bristol-Myers Squibb gamma-... In the Pipeline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5069802 Tue, 26 Jul 2011 12:08:06 +0100 5069802 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4876420&cid=t_435417_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F05%2F28%2Fatypical-antipsychotic-medications-not-a-good-choice-for-alzheimers%2F People with Alzheimer’s disease often suffer not only from the debilitating effects of the disease itself, but also from the secondary psychological effects. Delusions and hallucinations appear in up to 50 percent of those with Alzheimer’s, and as many as 70 percent demonstrate aggressive behaviors and agitation. Both caregivers and family members are distressed by these symptoms, and so everyone is motivated to treat the person with Alzheimer’s with antipsychotic medications. The problem? Antipsychotic medications haven’t always been well-researched on older populations, and fewer still on people with a disease like Alzheimer’s. And when the research has been done, the results are often underwhelming. Take the latest research, for instance, by Vigen and coll... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4876420 Sat, 28 May 2011 19:52:09 +0100 4876420 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3994363&cid=t_435417_155_f&fid=38412&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpathlabmed.typepad.com%2Fsurgical_pathology_and_la%2F2010%2F09%2Ftau-protein-reduction-axonal-transport-and-alzheimers-disease.html I'm not a neuropathologist but I thought this was an interesting article (abstract) and podcast author interview from Science.  There has been much attention paid to amyloid-beta and its role in plaque formation as well as therapeutic strategies to modify amyloid protein in the treatment of AD.  The authors in this study developed a model to study the role of tau protein and its role in axonal transport and interaction with amyloid-beta protein.  They found that amyloid-beta requires participation of tau to impair axonal transport and that reduction of tau protected against amyloid-beta induced axonal transport defects in this in vitro model.  The author discusses possible tau reduction therapies in development and future research directions. (Source: The Daily ... The Daily Sign-Out blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3994363 Wed, 22 Sep 2010 19:07:42 +0100 3994363 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3899624&cid=t_435417_149_f&fid=35776&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpipeline.corante.com%2Farchives%2F2010%2F08%2F24%2Falzheimers_down_with_amyloid.php Here's a fascinating short interview with Mark Smith of Case Western, a leading anti-amyloid-hypothesis guy in the Alzheimer's field. As you'd imagine, he's taking the recent failure of Lilly's gamma-secretase inhibitor in stride. As you might imagine, he's not shy: "Everything comes down to how one interprets data. There is a lot of scientific noise out there and most people like to play “follow the leader”. The structure of granting agencies actually discourages anything else. I sense the tide turning but think that the dead horse will be likely flogged for a while yet. For example, the Alzheimer’s field is already moving toward earlier and earlier “diagnosis”. Until these people are subjected to anti-amyloid approaches the field will continue [to support the amyloid theory].... In the Pipeline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3899624 Tue, 24 Aug 2010 11:32:48 +0100 3899624 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3881079&cid=t_435417_149_f&fid=35776&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpipeline.corante.com%2Farchives%2F2010%2F08%2F18%2Flillys_gamma_secretase_inhibitor_for_alzheimers_worse_than_nothing.php Well, well, well. We finally have solid clinical data from a large trial of a gamma-secretase inhibitor for Alzheimer's disease. And it doesn't work. Background, for those outside the field: a hallmark of Alzheimer's is the appearance of plaques in the brain. These are insoluble clumps of a protein called amyloid-beta, surrounded by dead and dying neurons. This amyloid is split off (for some reason) from the middle of a larger precursor protein (APP), and there are two enzymes that make the cuts to release it: gamma-secretase and beta-secretase. Shutting down one or both of those has long been seen as the most direct route to keeping amyloid from accumulating, and compounds that do this have been sought for at least twenty years now. Now this is interesting. The road to secretase inhibit... In the Pipeline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3881079 Wed, 18 Aug 2010 11:49:11 +0100 3881079 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3865450&cid=t_435417_149_f&fid=35776&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpipeline.corante.com%2Farchives%2F2010%2F08%2F13%2Falzheimers_markers_and_collaboration.php I'm of two minds on this New York Times article on Alzheimer's research. It details some recent progress on biomarkers for the disease, and that work does look to be useful. A lot of people have proposed diagnostics and markers for Alzheimer's and its progression over the years, but none of them have really panned out. If these do, that's something we haven't had before. But my first problem is something we were talking about here the other day. Biomarkers are not necessarily going to help you in drug development, not unless they're very well validated indeed. We really do need them in Alzheimer's research, because the disease progression is so slow. And this effort is really the only way to find such things - a good-sized patient sample, followed over many years. But unfortunately, 800 p... In the Pipeline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3865450 Fri, 13 Aug 2010 18:20:06 +0100 3865450 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3795046&cid=t_435417_149_f&fid=35776&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpipeline.corante.com%2Farchives%2F2010%2F07%2F27%2Falzheimers_and_amyloid_again.php I wanted to mention this good article in the New York Times on the amyloid hypothesis and Alzheimer's. That's a topic I've covered often here, but this is a good overview of the field. And it's a good overview of the field's big questions, too: is amyloid really the cause of Alzheimer's? Do we have any therapies that can slow amyloid deposition, or not? If so, do any of them actually show any real-world benefit to patients? This gets into the broader question of biomarkers as well. The FDA is insisting, as they should, that any potential Alzheimer's therapy should show improvements in memory or cognition, not just improvements in number of plaques or the like. Getting that sort of data is very difficult, but it's really the only way to avoid yet another "You'd Have Thought That. . ." mome... In the Pipeline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3795046 Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:10:23 +0100 3795046 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3652679&cid=t_435417_149_f&fid=35776&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpipeline.corante.com%2Farchives%2F2010%2F06%2F11%2Falzheimers_extracting_data_from_failed_trials.php It's no secret that Alzheimer's disease has been a disastrous area in which to do drug discovery. Every large drug company has had failures in the area, and many smaller ones have gone out of business trying their hands. (I had several years in the field myself earlier in my career, trying three different approaches, none of which panned out in the end). Now the Coalition Against Major Diseases has announced an open-access database of clinical trial results from failed drug candidates in the area. J&J, GlaxoSmithKline, Abbott, SanofiAventis, and AstraZeneca have contributed data from 11 failed drug candidates, and more look to be on the way from other companies. I hope that Eli Lilly, Merck (their own compounds and those from Schering-Plough), and Pfizer all join in on this - right off th... In the Pipeline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3652679 Fri, 11 Jun 2010 11:12:01 +0100 3652679 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3437917&cid=t_435417_149_f&fid=35776&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpipeline.corante.com%2Farchives%2F2010%2F04%2F05%2Frapamycin_for_alzheimers.php This report is definitely going to start a lot of people thinking about experimenting with rapamycin for Alzheimer's - there are a lot of desperate patients and relatives out there. But together with that lifespan paper, it might also start some people thinking about it whether they're worried about Alzheimer's or not. (Source: In the Pipeline) In the Pipeline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3437917 Mon, 05 Apr 2010 15:19:37 +0100 3437917 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3370652&cid=t_435417_149_f&fid=35776&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpipeline.corante.com%2Farchives%2F2010%2F03%2F16%2Fbetaamyloid_an_antibiotic.php Now here's something that I don't think anyone expected. A recent paper in PLoS One makes the case that beta-amyloid, the protein that has been fingered for decades as a major player in Alzheimer's disease, is actually part of the body's antimicrobial defenses. Well, it's good to hear that it's doing something. Many people had hypothesized that it was a useless (indeed, harmful) byproduct, a waste stream from aberrant processing of the amyloid precursor protein (APP). Still, there have been reports over the years that beta-amyloid was substrate for active transport pumps, might be a ligand for various receptors, etc., but not everyone was willing to take these results seriously. But it turns out that some of A-beta's properties are similar to those of innate host defense peptides. When ... In the Pipeline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3370652 Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:40:10 +0100 3370652 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3335554&cid=t_435417_149_f&fid=35776&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpipeline.corante.com%2Farchives%2F2010%2F03%2F04%2Fdimebon_grasping_at_straws.php Robert Langreth, an editor at Forbes, points to a possible way that Dimebon could get approval for Alzheimer's: for its behavioral effects, not anything to do with amyloid or memory. I'm not buying it, I have to say. Even Langreth's source admits that behavioral numbers didn't reach statistical significance. I don't see how this will be enough to rescue this one, even if one of the ongoing trials does use a behavioral score as an endpoint. Update: Langreth has an earlier piece on how Dimebon appears to have been overhyped from the beginning, a viewpoint I concur with. The same thing happens with any drug for Alzheimer's, and is a constant problem in cancer and obesity, too. (Source: In the Pipeline) In the Pipeline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3335554 Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:04:15 +0100 3335554 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3327280&cid=t_435417_149_f&fid=35776&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpipeline.corante.com%2Farchives%2F2010%2F03%2F03%2Fdimebon_comes_crashing_to_earth.php Earlier this month I wrote about Medivation and their Russian-derived clinical candidate for Alzheimer's disease, Dimebon (latrepirdine). At the time, I wrote that "A lot of eye-catching numbers from small Phase II trials tend to flatten out in the wider world of Phase III, and if forced, that's the way I'd bet here." Unfortunately, that's just what appears to have happened. The results are out today, and Dimebon has not showed any efficacy at all versus placebo. From the data given in the press release, the comparison is just absolutely flat; you could have been giving the study patients breath mints and seen the same numbers. Since the design of this trial was similar to the smaller Phase II trials that showed such interesting results, there's clearly something going on that we don't un... In the Pipeline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3327280 Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:53:32 +0100 3327280 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3236077&cid=t_435417_149_f&fid=35776&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpipeline.corante.com%2Farchives%2F2010%2F02%2F03%2Fdimebon_for_alzheimers_a_black_box_indeed.php Dimebon (dimebolin) is a perfect example of the black-box nature of drug research for the central nervous system. Any medicinal chemist who looks at its structure would immediately say "CNS", but shrug when asked what specific receptors it might hit. I'd have guessed histamine (correctly), since loratidine used to pay my salary, and I also would have guessed a clutch of 5-HT stuff as well. But it also has activity at AMPA and NMDA glutamate receptors, L-type calcium channels, and more. If you can tell me what it's really doing up there, you shouldn't bother: hang up on me and start calling people with money, because you're ready to take over the CNS therapeutic area for sure. This blunderbuss is getting a lot of attention these days, since the data for a Phase III trial against Alzheimer'... In the Pipeline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3236077 Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:15:21 +0100 3236077 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3115278&cid=t_435417_149_f&fid=35776&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpipeline.corante.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2F23%2Fan_alzheimers_compound_runs_into_big_trouble.php Another interesting approach to Alzheimer's therapy has just taken a severe jolt in the clinic. Elan and Transition Therapeutics were investigating ELEND005, also known as AZD-103, which was targeted at breaking down amyloid fibrils and allowing the protein to be cleared from the brain. Unfortunately, the two highest-dose patient groups experienced a much greater number of severe events - including nine deaths, which is about as severe as things get - and those doses have been dropped from the study. I'm actually rather surprised that the trial is going on at all, but the safety data for the lowest dose (250mg twice daily) appear to justify continuing. The higher doses were 1g and 2g b.i.d., and the fact that they were going up that high makes me think that the chances of success at the l... In the Pipeline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3115278 Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:51:45 +0100 3115278 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2622033&cid=t_435417_149_f&fid=35776&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpipeline.corante.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F07%2F20%2Famyloid_in_trouble.php Here's an interesting look at the current state of the Alzheimer's field from Bloomberg. The current big hope is Wyeth (and Elan)'s bapineuzumab, which I last wrote about here. That was after the companies reported what had to be considered less-than-hoped-for efficacy in the clinic. The current trial is the one sorted out by APOE4 status of the patients. After the earlier trial data, it seems unlikely that there's going to be a robust effect across the board - the people with the APOE4 mutation are probably the best hope for seeing real efficacy. And if bapineuzumab doesn't turn out to work even for them? Well: “Everyone is waiting with bated breath on bapineuzumab,” said Michael Gold, London-based Glaxo’s vice president of neurosciences, in an interview. “If that one fails, the... In the Pipeline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2622033 Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:58:02 +0100 2622033 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2217001&cid=t_435417_149_f&fid=35776&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpipeline.corante.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F02%2F26%2Fdoes_glucophage_make_alzheimers_worse.php Metformin, now there’s a drug story for you. It’s a startlingly small molecule, the sort of thing that chemists look and and say “That’s a real drug?” It kicked around in the literature and the labs in the 1960s, was marketed in Europe in the 1980s but was shopped around in the US for quite a while, partly because a lot of people had just that reaction. (It didn't help that a couple of other drugs in the same structural class turned out to cause lactic acidosis and had to be pulled from use). Bristol-Myers Squibb finally took metformin up, though, and did extremely well with it in the end under the brand name Glucophage. It’s now generic, and continues to be widely prescribed for Type II diabetes. But for many years, no one had a clue how it worked. It not only went all the wa... In the Pipeline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2217001 Thu, 26 Feb 2009 13:18:38 +0100 2217001 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2090184&cid=t_435417_149_f&fid=35776&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpipeline.corante.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F01%2F08%2Fshort_items_india_sanjay_gupta_satori_pharmaceuticals.php I have a few short links for everyone today. One series of posts that you might not have seen from Xconomy is a tour of the technological hot spots of India by Boston University's Vinit Nijhawan. It's interesting stuff for people like me who haven't been to the country, and he isn't shy about pointing out both the good and the bad about India's current situation. He's not focusing on the chemistry/pharmaceutical sector, but it's an interesting read in general. I would very much enjoy seeing a similar series written from China - perhaps the Xconomy folks are working on that one? Next: if Sanjay Gupta really is going to be surgeon general (and why not?), it's worth watching his exchange with Michael Moore when Moore's movie "Sicko" came out. This is a 17-minute YouTube clip, and you may not... In the Pipeline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2090184 Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:31:08 +0100 2090184 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1671771&cid=t_435417_149_f&fid=35776&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpipeline.corante.com%2Farchives%2F2008%2F07%2F31%2Frember_for_alzheimers_methylene_blues_comeback.php Today we take up the extremely interesting story of Rember, hailed in this week’s press as a potential wonder drug for Alzheimer’s. There are a lot of unusual features to this one. To take the most obvious first, the Phase II data seem to have been impressive. It’s hard to show decent efficacy in an Alzheimer’s trial – you can ask Wyeth and Elan about that, although it’s a sore subject with them. But Rember, according to reports (this is the best I've seen), was significantly more effective than the current standard of care (Aricept/donezepil, a cholinesterase inhibitor). In light of some of the more breathless news stories, though, it’s worth keeping in mind that this was efficacy in slowing the rate of decline – not stopping it, and certainly not reversing it. Especially... In the Pipeline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1671771 Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:13:56 +0100 1671771 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1668698&cid=t_435417_149_f&fid=35776&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpipeline.corante.com%2Farchives%2F2008%2F07%2F30%2Fbapineuzumab_good_for_anything_or_not.php Note: I'm still working my way through the information on the much-hyped TauRx drug, Rember - a post on that is coming. Here's more from the same Alzheimer's meeting, though: Elan and Wyeth unveiled the data on their widely anticipated Alzheimer’s drug bapineuzumab yesterday. This is another antibody from Elan’s shop, part of a long-running effort to induce an immune response to the amyloid protein which is thought to be a key player in the development of disease. And. . .well, this is an Alzheimer’s drug. That means it comes with all the standard baggage: it’s trying to treat an extremely difficult disease that we don’t understand very well, by a mechanism that no one can be sure will work or is even relevant. (Cue up this discussion from last week around here!) This drug was ... In the Pipeline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1668698 Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:20:06 +0100 1668698 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1556503&cid=t_435417_149_f&fid=35776&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpipeline.corante.com%2Farchives%2F2008%2F06%2F30%2Fanother_alzheimers_compound_goes_down.php I was mentioning the gamma secretase enzyme around here just the other day as a longstanding target for Alzheimer's therapy. I remember the periodduring the 1990s when the enzyme hadn't been identified yet, and frankly, it was a lot easier to get excited about it then. That's because when it was finally worked out, the protease turned out to be a big multifunctional multiprotein complex, and among its many functions was affecting Notch signaling. That's worrisome, because a lot of important cellular development pathways go through the Notch receptor, and these are things that you'd really rather not mess with. (Just run the word "notch" through PubMed to see what I mean). Indeed, some of the toxic effects of the earlier gamma secretase inhibitors seem to have been mediated through just th... In the Pipeline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1556503 Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:25:12 +0100 1556503 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1526771&cid=t_435417_149_f&fid=35776&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpipeline.corante.com%2Farchives%2F2008%2F06%2F17%2Fprotecting_amyloids_parent.php Let’s start from first principles: most drugs mess something up. More elegantly, most drugs inhibit some enzyme’s activity or block some receptor’s binding site. Proteins are generally pretty well optimized at what they do, so it’s a lot easier to block their activities than it is to speed them up. (There are rare exceptions). And if you’re going to target an enzyme with a small molecule inhibitor, you’ll do just that – find a small molecule that fits into the active site of the enzyme and gums up the works. In a few cases, we know of drugs that bind to other sites on the protein and mess up the active site indirectly, by altering the whole conformation of the protein, but most inhibitors are in or near the site where the natural substrates bind. This background is what mak... In the Pipeline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1526771 Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:11:14 +0100 1526771 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1516775&cid=t_435417_149_f&fid=35776&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpipeline.corante.com%2Farchives%2F2008%2F06%2F13%2Felan_tries_again.php The long-running saga of Elan's attempt to come up with a vaccine for Alzheimer's disease continues. There have been bold attempts, setbacks, rethinks, more setbacks, and now they're starting up again. Dosing of the latest version of their vaccine against the beta-amyloid protein, known as ACC-001, was suddenly halted in April when one patient came down with a skin lesion which was thought to be possibly autoimmune-linked vasculitis. Biopsy results didn't confirm that, though, and the Elan/Wyeth partnership is resuming clinical studies. I'm not sure what that couple of months has done to their trial design; I assume that they've just started enrolling new patients and will continue with them, while continuing to monitor the former dosage groups. Maybe, though, there's a way to continue wi... In the Pipeline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1516775 Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:44:12 +0100 1516775 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1423658&cid=t_435417_149_f&fid=35776&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpipeline.corante.com%2Farchives%2F2008%2F05%2F06%2Falzheimers_a_report_from_the_front.php Several recent papers in Neurology offer some interesting ideas on Alzheimer's disease. The one that's getting some headlines today suggests that long-term use of ibuprofen has a protective effect against the disease. Actually, the authors looked at all sorts of non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs, but the correlation was strongest for ibuprofen. (That may be just because it's used so much, however, and not some intrinsic property of that specific drug). Interestingly, although some NSAIDs have been shown to inhibit formation of beta-amyloid (the protein fragment implicated for many years in Alzheimer's), no particular effect was seen for that class of drugs versus the other NSAIDs. There's long been a suspicion that a lot of Alzheimer's pathology is driven by inflammation cascades, and... In the Pipeline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1423658 Tue, 06 May 2008 12:20:42 +0100 1423658 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1265292&cid=t_435417_149_f&fid=35776&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpipeline.corante.com%2Farchives%2F2008%2F02%2F28%2Fapoe4_test_or_not.php Science has coverage of a diagnostic test for the APOE gene that’s coming into the market. For about $400, you can find out what form of the protein you have. The problem is, the main thing this test is good for is telling you that you have a greater-than-average chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease, which raises the question of whether it’s good for anything at all. Most of the people quoted in the article have their doubts, which I share. Since we really don’t have any decent therapies for Alzheimer’s, what’s the good of knowing that you’re at greater risk for it? The only exception I can think of is mentioned by law professor Henry Greely of Stanford: if you’re homozygous for APOE4, you’re about 15 times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s. That gets into the ran... In the Pipeline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1265292 Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:43:23 +0100 1265292 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1222425&cid=t_435417_149_f&fid=35776&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpipeline.corante.com%2Farchives%2F2008%2F02%2F11%2Ffast_plaques_in_a_slow_disease.php One of the first projects I ever worked on when I started in industry was targeting Alzheimer's disease. Things could have easily worked out to find me still targeting Alzheimer's disease, nearly twenty years later, because the standard of care really hasn't advanced all that much in the intervening years. It's a hard, hard area to work in. CNS programs are always difficult, since we understand less about the brain's workings than those of any other organ, and since the brain's own blood supply is another barrier to getting a drug through to do anything. And Alzheimer's has tough features on top of that, since (for one thing) we're the only animal that gets the disease, and (for another) the clinical trials needed to show efficacy can be hideously long, large, and expensive. And the under... In the Pipeline blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1222425 Mon, 11 Feb 2008 13:48:52 +0100 1222425 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=740472&cid=t_435417_137_f&fid=35350&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tangledneuron.info%2Fthe_tangled_neuron%2F2007%2F07%2Fdr-rudolph-tanz.html Summary: Genetic variations linked with Alzheimer’s provide clues on potential treatments. Many drugs currently in trials are based on these clues. With advances in technology, software and the Human Genome Database, Dr. Rudolph Tanzi is optimistic about the future for personalized medicine, where prevention and treatments could be tailored to a person’s specific genetic profile. Because an estimated 70 percent of Alzheimer’s genetics is still unknown, researchers have a lot of work to do before this vision can be realized. Scientists study genetic variations and how they are linked with pathologies and symptoms to determine who is at risk for developing diseases. But there’s another important reason they study genetic variations: to look for clues about potential treatments. ... The Tangled Neuron blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=740472 Tue, 17 Jul 2007 13:59:51 +0100 740472 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=707660&cid=t_435417_137_f&fid=35350&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tangledneuron.info%2Fthe_tangled_neuron%2F2007%2F07%2Fearly-memory-lo.html In late October, I’ll be going out to Los Angeles to attend a one-day symposium for people with early memory loss. The symposium, called “Living Our Lives, Planning Our Futures” will feature talks by David Shenk, the author of The Forgetting, and Dr. Gary Small, Director of the UCLA Center on Aging and author of several books on improving memory and brain health. The event is hosted by the Alzheimer’s Association California Southland Chapter, in cooperation with the University of Southern California (UCLA) and the UCLA Alzheimer’s Research Center. The real meat of the program will be the eight breakout sessions on topics such as “Communications and Relationships,” “Stimulating the Brain,” and “Re-defining Early Stage Dementia.” Persons with early memory loss or demen... The Tangled Neuron blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=707660 Sun, 01 Jul 2007 19:47:54 +0100 707660 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=623561&cid=t_435417_137_f&fid=35350&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tangledneuron.info%2Fthe_tangled_neuron%2F2007%2F05%2Fi_dont_know_why.html “I don’t know why I can’t remember words lately,” my maternal grandmother said to my mother. Grandma Ben (shown here at her college graduation in 1924) was then in her early 80’s, brisk and competent. Around the same time, my paternal grandmother (right) started getting lost while driving around our small town. “Kilo,” as we called her, was in her early 70’s. And when my father (below, on the Pamlico River with his dog Beau) was in his late 60’s, he too had trouble finding words. They all went on to develop dementia. So it isn’t surprising I had a personal interest in a presentation called “Family History as a Risk Factor for Alzheimer’s” at the Wisconsin State Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders earlier this month. The talk was given by... The Tangled Neuron blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=623561 Sun, 20 May 2007 17:40:41 +0100 623561 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=579656&cid=t_435417_137_f&fid=35350&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tangledneuron.info%2Fthe_tangled_neuron%2F2007%2F04%2Fcognitive_rehab.html Summary: Results of a small trial show cognitive rehabilitation can help people with mild Alzheimer’s improve their ability to perform practical tasks. Unlike cognitive stimulation programs, cognitive rehabilitation is designed to improve specific skills. Rehabilitation may help people with memory loss stay functional and independent, but more research is needed. Morris Friedell was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 1998. “I had a feeling that all I could do was wait for the axes to fall, one after the other,” the retired sociology professor wrote in his year 2000 essay “Potential for Rehabilitation in Alzheimer’s Disease.” “I’d lose my ability to drive, to budget, to speak coherently, to dress myself, to use the toilet. I thought: I must plan to die when I can stil... The Tangled Neuron blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=579656 Mon, 30 Apr 2007 19:16:47 +0100 579656 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=571262&cid=t_435417_137_f&fid=35350&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tangledneuron.info%2Fthe_tangled_neuron%2F2007%2F04%2Fearly_onset_alz.html People typically develop Alzheimer's in their late 60's or in their 70's. But there's a growing awareness that younger people can have the disease too. The Alzheimer's Association is ramping up publicity and educational efforts for Early Onset Alzheimer's disease, and now the Alzheimer's Research Forum has developed a section of its site devoted to Familial Early Onset Alzheimer's James Smith and his wife Juanita have been working to increase awareness of Early Onset through web-based sites, speeches and meetings such as the Alzheimer's Association Public Policy Forum where I met them. Check out the short RealLife.tv video of James talking about his life after diagnosis with Early Onset Alzheimer's, as well as a companion video of Juanita talking about how their lives have changed. (Sourc... The Tangled Neuron blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=571262 Thu, 26 Apr 2007 15:58:11 +0100 571262