Posted on 07/23/2006 4:20:02 AM PDT by Aussie Dasher
MELBOURNE scientists believe they may have found a cure for Alzheimer's disease if tests on mice prove successful in humans.
In a world first, a Melbourne research team has developed a once-a-day pill that could stop the debilitating disease in its tracks.
Human trials of the drug PBT2 will begin next month.
Professor George Fink, director of the Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria, which developed the drug in partnership with Prana Biotechnology, said it was a major breakthrough.
"I'm getting great excitement out of it, it's certainly another Eureka," he said on Channel 10.
"If we can replicate in a human what occurs at the lab bench then this will be of great, immense importance."
Prof Fink said the drug could prevent or delay Alzheimer's from developing.
PBT2 works by attacking a build up of the protein amyloid, which is thought to cause the brain to rust.
Clinical tests on animals have found the drug acts fast, with amyloid levels dropping by 60 per cent within 24 hours of a dose.
About 700 Australians are diagnosed with Alzheimer's each week, with that figure expected to triple within 40 years.
"It is a major breakthrough and very much a Melbourne discovery," Prof Fink told the Sunday Herald Sun.
"Though much depends on the next phase of human clinical trials ... early results indicate this drug offers hope to people with Alzheimer's disease."
Alzheimer's Australia (Victoria) executive director Lynette Moore welcomed the development.
"The earlier we can get at this disease the more likely it is that we're going to halt it in its tracks or reverse it and the people aren't going to suffer the consequences," Ms Moore said on Channel 10.
I seem to spend most of the visit being lectured on my wild behavior. And once I was severely scolded for working for the Nixon Campaign.
It's funny and heartbreaking all at the same time. But I prefer that to the times she just sits there looking so little and lost.
I think it must be like living in reverse.
LOL!
Thank you very much!
LOL
You and I may have to take a trip to Australia before the FDA gets around to approving it.
I understand where you are coming from. My own father died nearly 4 years ago with "A". And now every time I forget something - I worry "has it begun?"
Before we realized she was becoming ill, my great-aunt, a wonderful cook who hosted many holiday meals of my youth, would get up and start cooking these huge meals, thinking she was cooking for another family gathering.
It took awhile to get her to stop. At the beginning, when she would actually cook, that was one thing. But then she'd turn on the stove, leave raw food out, etc. That was when we realized something was going on.
That's so sad, but at the same time, it shows that she was reliving the times of her life when she was useful, appreciated, and surrounded by her family.
You bet. I've lived with the fear that his would be like all of the other horror stories that I've heard. That's probably why I'm always asking him if he remembers who I am. I feel like we dodged a bullet, but knowing how bad it could have been keeps me in prayer for those who are suffering from the effects of Alzheimers.
~grin. Grandma would have been a Democrat except for the fact that she hated all politicians equally.
Sounds like my mother. She never got over Nixon and Kissinger letting her down.
After two years at home, she developed some physical conditions for which the caregiver wasn't trained, and at that point, nowhere was 'home' anymore, so we made the decision to put her in a nursing home that could handle Alzheimer's patients. Her physical condition improved, and mentally she didn't degrade anymore because she was more stimulated by meeting new people every day. She was also nearer our hometown, from which she had moved after my Daddy had died twenty years before, so more of her family, siblings, nieces, nephews, and family friends, could come by for a visit. Mercifully, congestive heart failure took her before she had degraded mentally much more, and at the time she died, she still recognized all her siblings, children, and grandchildren, though she needed prompting on the great-grands. We were fortunate in that.
Until there's a pill, fish oil supplements seem to be the best bet. And red wine.
It sounds like it worked out pretty well for you. My parents have long-term-care insurance, so we will have the finances to choose the best option when we need to.
Seriously, this could help a lot of people.
I should have been more precise: I didn't mean liberals, I meant the DNC hierarchy, i.e. the Deans, the Begalas, the Schumers, the Durbins; the type of people who dash to a camera to declare that anything bad that occurs in the world happened because Bush is a dimwit.
I say this because their intellectual dishonesty is such that the aforementioned refuse to address all other stem cell research progress except the embryonic. As you know if you are on FR or listen to conservative talk, there have been more rock-solid medical advances made in treatment of fatal disease using umbilical cord blood and adult stem cells than embryonic cells.
As much as I like Michael J. Fox as an actor (Back to The Future is one of my favorite movies), it really annoys me that when he speaks, it's like hundreds of "snowflake children" didn't even exist. I would like to see his reaction to the question, "Which one of the children at President Bush's press conference would you have liked to see die for your benefit?"
I may be too late for my grandmother, but maybe not for my great aunt...
If this is successful this will be great... I know the Pittsburgh Compound had been proven to cross the blood brain barrier and attach itself to the plaque buildup.. but I haven't heard anything since that breakthrough a few years ago...
If they have now successfully be able to remove the plaque in humans this is an amazing accomplishment and holds great promise.
Good to hear it. I'm in intense cabernet therapy, myself.
My aunt is in first stages, and I've got to balance her checkbook. It will progress, but she's fighting it, and she's also planned the rest of her life should her mental faculties diminish.
self ping for later
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