Epilepsy drug could help cure Alzheimer's

Calgery Herald
Chad Skelton, Canwest News Service
Published: Monday, October 27, 2008
Researchers at the University of B.C. have discovered that a drug commonly used to treat epilepsy and bipolar disorder significantly reduces brain plaque in mice with Alzheimer's disease.

The discovery, if replicated in humans, could lead to major new treatments for the debilitating brain-wasting disease. "If this works . . . it's going to benefit every patient with Alzheimer's disease," said UBC psychiatry professor Weihong Song, who led the study.

Song and his colleagues took mice genetically modified to exhibit Alzheimer's-like symptoms and then treated them with valproic acid (VPA), a compound usually used as a mood stabilizer or anti-convulsant

They found the drug.....read the whole story

New imaging procedure sure to help in Alzheimer's and other dementia diagnosis

WASHINGTON -- Imaging agents currently in development that could detect the abnormal amyloid plaques in the brain associated with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias could help doctors diagnose these conditions, a Food and Drug Administration panel of medical experts said Thursday.

Such agents, which would be used in combination with positron-emission tomography scans, are designed to essentially "light up" areas of the brain that contain amyloid on imaging scans, but so far none are FDA approved. Beta-amyloid is a protein contained in clumps or plaques seen in the brains of people who have died of Alzheimer's complications.

While it is not entirely clear what role amyloid plays in Alzheimer's disease, most researchers believe it is... read this story
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Amyloid- vaccination for Alzheimer's dementia

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Clive Holmes and colleagues1 report that the amyloid- vaccine AN1792 showed evidence of plaque removal in patients with Alzheimer's dementia, but......what. Click here

Barack Obama campaign is running false promise of Alzheimer's cure

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The radio ad the Barack Obama campaign is running that falsely accuses John McCain of opposing stem cell research and misleads listeners on the best hope for diabetes patients has another problem. The ad promises cures for Alzheimer’s even though leading scientists say the disease likely won't benefit.

"Stem cell research could unlock cures for diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer’s, too. But John McCain has stood in the way ... he's opposed stem cell research," the ad claims.

However, leading scientists say that embryonic stem cell research will likely never yield a cure for Alzheimer's.

"Alzheimer's is a more global disease, with an effect on numerous kinds of cells," Steve Stice, a stem cell researcher at the University of Georgia, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper previously. "That makes it much more difficult for a cell therapy to be effective."

In a patient afflicted with Alzheimer's, clumps of protein called amyloid build up within the brain and begin attacking various types of cells and the connections between cells.

Other researchers agree that potential cures, if they come about, won't happen soon.

"I think the chance of doing repairs to Alzheimer's brains by putting in.....read the whole article

ScienceDaily (Sep. 2008) — Investigators at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) announced a link between the brain protein KIBRA and Alzheimer's disease, a discovery that could lead to promising new treatments for this memory-robbing disorder.

The new discovery builds on a previous TGen-led study published in the journal Science, which showed a genetic link between KIBRA and memory in healthy adults.

In the new study, TGen researchers found that carriers of a memory-enhancing flavor of the KIBRA gene had a 25 percent lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

The findings were reported ....read the whole article