Alzheimer's Disease: past, current, and future treatments

Examiner.com
National
As the new year approaches we should be aware of Alzheimer's Disease and related dementias: past, current, and future treatments
by Meg Marquardt, Omaha Science Examiner
Agustine D., the first AD patient described by Alzheimer in 1906. Let's take an in-depth look at the history and exciting future of AD treatment.

Part I: A Historical Perspective

The history Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a short-lived one. It was identified by Alois Alzheimer as a unique manifestation of dementia in 1906, a time when senile dementia had been made a popular topic by the likes of Freud. But what of all the time before the 20th century? Certainly people were suffering from AD and dementia long before the modern period. It could be argued that there were few cases of people afflicted with diseases associated with old age simply because they are not living to an old age. The typical onset of AD is around the age of 60, and the average worldwide lifespan did not reach 60 until recent times. The World Health Organization estimates that the average global life expectancy was 31 years in 1900—and below 50 years in wealthy, developed countries. So in 1906, when Alzheimer first outlined the disease, there is a chance that there had been relatively few cases that were noticed, let alone studied.

There were other factors leading to a lack of investigation into AD, assumptions made by scientists and complacency leading the pack. It was generally held that dementia was an.....read the whole article

For more dementia info, click here

For Alzheimer's and dementia activities, click here

Alzheimer's Disease Screening Breakthrough Will Help Identify Potential Treatment Drugs

ScienceDaily (Dec. 12, 2008) — CSIRO scientists have developed a new system to screen for compounds that can inhibit one of the processes that takes place during the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Certain yeast species could be used to develop this rapid screening process. Folate has been shown to be beneficial in the screening system
Lead author, CSIRO’s Dr Ian Macreadie says folate is already well known to have a protective effect against Alzheimer’s disease which is believed to be caused by the loss of neurons in the brain due to a process whereby toxic multimers of a small protein called Aβ are formed.

“However, a team of scientists working within CSIRO’s Preventative Health Flagship has discovered a....read the whole article

click here to read more about Alzheimer's disease and relateed dementias

Alzheimer's Association Grant Furthers Successful Research at UMass Lowell

MarketWatch
'SmartPill' Uses Vitamin Formulation to Improve Brain Health, Memory
Researchers at UMass Lowell have demonstrated success in improving the memory and brain function of patients with Alzheimer's disease, findings that will be published in the December/January issue of the American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.
Called the "SmartPill," the vitamin-based formulation has been shown to improve memory and recall speed in normal adults and Alzheimer's patients, without side effects. On Monday, Oct. 20, the Alzheimer's Association presented a grant, awarded competitively at the national level, to support additional clinical trials to test whether the formulation can delay the onset of the disease.
James Wessler, president and CEO of the Massachusetts/New Hampshire Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association, presented a check for $240,000 for three years to UMass Lowell Prof. Thomas Shea, the lead researcher on the "SmartPill." A licensing agreement to bring the pill to the market under the name MemoryXL to be sold without a prescription is in negotiations.
"This formulation is the first, non-prescription, low-cost intervention for Alzheimer's disease," says Shea, a professor in UMass Lowell's Biological Sciences Department. "One can start this at the first indication of memory problems, or even before for general brain health, instead of waiting for the severe deterioration of advancing Alzheimer's."
Shea, representatives of the Alzheimer's Association's Massachusetts/New Hampshire Chapter and UMass Lowell, including Chancellor Marty Meehan, were among those who attended.....read the whole article

What is the news about the treatment of Alzheimer's dementia?

Innovative Alzheimer's medications offer hope
Dr. Beata Skudlarska
Article Last Updated: 08/06/2008 12:29:07 PM EDT


Q: What is the news about the treatment of Alzheimer's dementia? Are there any new medications available? How do they work? Do they have side effects? Is there any place close by where I can get my mom into a medication trial? She has been diagnosed with dementia 4 years ago and I think that the pills she is taking are not helping anymore. Any advice is welcome. Trish
A: The Alzheimer's Association International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease just ended in Chicago last week. Many new drug trial results and potential new treatments were presented. Some were rather promising, others proved to be disappointing. I will try to summarize them for you, but first let me briefly describe what is available for treatment of dementia now.

First, no new drugs for dementia have been approved since 2003. We hope that some new medications will get approved soon (which, in the world of pharmacological intervention is 12-24 months). We do not know for sure when because the Food And Drug Administration tends to be more careful with new drugs these days, trying to make sure that medications have no harmful side effects (remember Vioxx?).

Currently, there are two groups of drugs on the market to treat Alzheimer's. One type blocks an enzyme responsible for the breakdown of a chemical, acetylcholine, which is believed to play a major role in memory transmission in the brain. As a result, there is more of that chemical available for brain cells to use. In this group we have three drugs to click here to read the whole story and comments

Why laughter is so important for those with dementia

Laughter, the physical response to perceived humor, Those with dementia can still perceive humor. Laughter has demonstrated positive effects on physical and psychological well-being.Dementia folks have improved well being from laughter. Thus if someone with dementia thinks something is funny, he will laugh. What helps is to have a group leader or care giver start laughing about something and invite the dementia person(s) to join in. Often you will find that laughter is contageous. Studies that focus on effects of humor on health and well-being of older adults are scarce.

Laughter therapy is in for those with dementia

Click here for more information

Are Humor and Word-Play Lost Skillls for Those with Alzheimer's?

click here for some caregivers opinions

Have you heard of laughter clubs ?

click here to find out more about them

Bright Light Improves Dementia Symptoms

Study Shows Brighter Daytime Lighting Brings Improvement in Mood, Behavior
By Kelli Miller Stacy
WebMD Health NewsReviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Turning up the lights during the daytime may boost mood and improve behavior in elderly adults with dementia, according to a new study.

Mood swings, sleep problems, and behavioral issues frequently affect those with dementia-related cognitive decline. Such disturbances can increase the person's risk of being admitted to an assisted living facility, according to background information in the journal article

Their study is published in the June 11 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Click here to read the facts as webmd reports

read what bloomberg.com had to say

Now what do you think?

Dementia, brain health and blueberries

Studies show that blueberries protect the brain against the effects of age-related
short-term memory loss found in folks with dementia. This is due to the antioxidant actions of flavonoids found in blueberries

In one study, Jim Joseph, Director of the neuroscience laboratory in the USDA Human Nutrition Center found that blueberry-fed mice performed better than their control group counterparts in motor behavioral learning and memory, and increased in exploratory behaviour

Preliminary results show that people who ate a cup of blueberries a day have performed 5-6% better on motor skills tests than the control group

click here for the whole story

Study: Excessive Consumption of Sugary Drinks Linked Alzheimer's Disease

If you want to keep your mind sharp, you may want to lay off the soda. Excessive drinking of sugary beverages may increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

For the study, Dr. Ling Li, an assistant professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and her colleagues tested whether high sugar consumption in an otherwise normal diet would affect Alzheimer’s progression.

Researchers used a genetic mouse model and over a 25-week period supplemented the regular
Click here for the whole story

Getting out of the loop of Alzheimer's disease

Scientists from UCLA recently pinpointed a possible physical origin of Alzheimer's disease. The amyloid-beta protein has long been known to clump in the brain and be involved in the progression of the disease. The UCLA team identified a loop in the protein that is likely to enable amyloid-beta's adhesion process. This discovery sAlzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of late-life dementia. It is estimated to affect 24 million people worldwide, and half of the people over 85 may suffer from it. This fatal disorder is characterized by a decline in the individuals' memory and in their ability to think and function independently. Current drugs treat the symptoms of Alzheimer's but not the underlying cause of the disease.

A protein called the amyloid-beta protein (A-beta) is thought to be a key cause of AD. A-beta proteins apparently stick together to form toxic deposits in the brain. Self-associations of A-beta can form various clump structures called "amyloid plaques". Recent studies suggest that these plaques have potent neurotoxic activities that may kill brain cells.

UCLA scientists, headed by David Teplow, Professor of Neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, have recently identified a loop in the A-beta protein that is likely to be responsible for the adhesion process. The UCLA team employed an interdisciplinary research strategy. Among other methods, they have revealed morphologic, conformational, and aggregation features of synthetic A-beta in a tube ('in vitro'), examined the effects of various A-beta assemblies on the physiology of cultured neuronal cell lines ('in vivo') and used computerized methods ('in silico') to produce models of A-beta structures and to study its conformational dynamics and assembly. The researchers thus discovered that gene mutations in A-beta increase the flexibility of the protein's loop, enabling it to join easily with loops of other A-beta proteins to form clumps. The loop is also located in the region of the protein that regulates the formation of A-beta and its amount.

uggests new ways to treat the disorder's cause, rather than just the symptoms
click here to read the full story