Alzheimer’s: Amazing Drug Breakthrough Touted by Researchers
Researchers in California believe they’ve found a new treatment for Alzheimer patients, one which works within minutes and shows amazing results. If the researchers’ work pans out it could mean a vast improvement in the quality of life in hundreds of thousands of people coping with the ravages of the dreaded disease.
Scientists at the Institute for Neurological Research at the University of California have been working with the anti-arthritis drug, Enbrel or Eternacept. Fifty patients at a private clinic have been receiving spinal column injections then are encouraged to tilt forward in an effort to encourage the drug to “flow toward the brain”.
According to the researchers, within 5 minutes Alzheimer patients show remarkable improvement. The researchers also claim an astounding 90% of patients have responded to the treatment.
Professor Edward Tobinick, who is leading the research, said: “What we see is an improvement in ability to think and calculate, memory improves, verbal ability improves, [patients] find words easier, they seem happier and we often also see an improvement in gait in patients whose gait is affected.”
According to the British newspaper, the Independent, the clinic performing the pilot study has videos where Alzheimer’s patients exhibit remarkable improvement within a few minutes after the injection of the arthritis drug, Enbrel, or etarnercept.
Other arthritis drugs which were previously approved by the FDA for Alzheimer’s are three cholinesterase inhibitors: Exelon, Razadyne, and Aricept. Razadyne was discontinued because of a risk of severe liver damage.
Exelon is approved for mild or moderate stages of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease dementia. Exelon prevents the breakdown of two chemicals in the brain, acetylcholine and butyrycholine, which are crucial in memory and learning. The makers of Aricept (donepezil HCI) claim their drug reduces the breakdown of acetylcholine.
The arthritis drug used in the recent California study, Enbrel, or entaracept, is a type of protein called tumor necrosis factor blocker. Patients who have too much TNF, or tumor necrosis factor, suffer from pain and inflammation in the joints and from immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. Enbrel may work to block inflammation in Alzheimer’s patient’s brain. While Enbrel works to reduce the amount of TNF it can also make a patient more prone to, and/or decrease the ability to fight off an infection.
In California the researchers working with Enbrel have only performed a three year pilot study, publishing the results from 15 patients, including videos which purportedly show remarkable improvement in patients. Scientists caution that the conclusions cannot be verified until a more controlled study is done.
By LBG
Source – About.com – Alzheimers
Source – Enbrel
Source – Aricept
Source – Independent – Scientists Claim videos are proof of Alzheimer’s breakthrough
Image – Molecular Medicine
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.
Cool. And the thing about drugs that work instantly is they often pinpoint causation so that further treatments can be deduced.
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