Reversal Of Alzheimer's Symptoms Within Minutes In Human Study

Science Daily ^ | 1-8-2008 | University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

[blam]

Reversal Of Alzheimer's Symptoms Within Minutes In Human Study

PET Scan of Alzheimer's Disease Brain. (Credit: NIH/National Institute On Aging)

ScienceDaily (Jan. 9, 2008) — An extraordinary new scientific study, which for the first time documents marked improvement in Alzheimer’s disease within minutes of administration of a therapeutic molecule, has just been published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation.

This new study highlights the importance of certain soluble proteins, called cytokines, in Alzheimer’s disease. The study focuses on one of these cytokines, tumor necrosis factor-alpha(TNF), a critical component of the brain’s immune system. Normally, TNF finely regulates the transmission of neural impulses in the brain. The authors hypothesized that elevated levels of TNF in Alzheimer’s disease interfere with this regulation. To reduce elevated TNF, the authors gave patients an injection of an anti-TNF therapeutic called etanercept. Excess TNF-alpha has been documented in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with Alzheimer’s.

The new study documents a dramatic and unprecedented therapeutic effect in an Alzheimer’s patient: improvement within minutes following delivery of perispinal etanercept, which is etanercept given by injection in the spine. Etanercept (trade name Enbrel) binds and inactivates excess TNF. Etanercept is FDA approved to treat a number of immune-mediated disorders and is used off label in the study.

The use of anti-TNF therapeutics as a new treatment choice for many diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and potentially even Alzheimer’s, was recently chosen as one of the top 10 health stories of 2007 by the Harvard Health Letter.

Similarly, the Neurotechnology Industry Organization has recently selected new treatment targets revealed by neuroimmunology (such as excess TNF) as one of the top 10 Neuroscience Trends of 2007. And the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives has chosen the pilot study using perispinal etanercept for Alzheimer’s for inclusion and discussion in their 2007 Progress Report on Brain Research.

The lead author of the study, Edward Tobinick M.D., is an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles and director of the Institute for Neurological Research, a private medical group in Los Angeles. Hyman Gross, M.D., clinical professor of neurology at the University of Southern California, was co-author.

The study is accompanied by an extensive commentary by Sue Griffin, Ph.D., director of research at the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in Little Rock and at the Geriatric Research and Clinical Center at the VA Hospital in Little Rock, who along with Robert Mrak, M.D., chairman of pathology at University of Toledo Medical School, are editors-in-chief of the Journal of Neuroinflammation.

Griffin and Mrak are pioneers in the field of neuroinflammation. Griffin published a landmark study in 1989 describing the association of cytokine overexpression in the brain and Alzheimer’s disease. Her research helped pave the way for the findings of the present study. Griffin has recently been selected for membership in the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, a nonprofit organization of more than 200 leading neuroscientists, including ten Nobel laureates.

“It is unprecedented that we can see cognitive and behavioral improvement in a patient with established dementia within minutes of therapeutic intervention,” said Griffin. “It is imperative that the medical and scientific communities immediately undertake to further investigate and characterize the physiologic mechanisms involved. This gives all of us in Alzheimer’s research a tremendous new clue about new avenues of research, which is so exciting and so needed in the field of Alzheimer’s. Even though this report predominantly discusses a single patient, it is of significant scientific interest because of the potential insight it may give into the processes involved in the brain dysfunction of Alzheimer’s.”

While the article discusses one patient, many other patients with mild to severe Alzheimer’s received the treatment and all have shown sustained and marked improvement.

The new study, entitled “Rapid cognitive improvement in Alzheimer’s disease following perispinal etanercept administration,” and the accompanying commentary, entitled “Perispinal etanercept: Potential as an Alzheimer’s therapeutic,” are available on the Web site of the Journal of Neuroinflammation.

Author Hyman Gross, M.D., has no competing interests. Author Edward Tobinick, M.D. owns stock in Amgen, the manufacturer of etanercept, and has multiple issued and pending patents assigned to TACT IP LLC that describe the parenteral and perispinal use of etanercept for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological disorders, including, but not limited to, U.S. patents 6015557, 6177077, 6419934, 6419944, 6537549, 6982089, 7214658 and Australian patent 758523.

Adapted from materials provided by University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

[fightinJAG]

The drug price will probably be lower, as you said, but the procedure price will be much higher. Probably have to be done in an outpatient center. You’ll have to pay the person who does the spinal infusion and whatever lab tests they do before and after each treatment.

It won’t be a self-injected drug like it is now for this use!

[Peter Libra]

Remembering Dr Jonas Salk and his vaccine for polio.

Absolutely. Right on

[Steve_Seattle]

Thanks very much; it’s amazing the knowledge base that exists here in FR.

[texas booster]

Thanks for the ping. I would have missed this article without it.

For those that are not aware, FR has a Folding@Home team that donates computer time to help research into the basics of Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease, among others.

You download a small program onto a Windows, Linux, Mac or PS3 and let it fold when you are not using the computer.

There are over 250,000 systems crunching away at any time, and each one works on a small part of the bigger research project.

The latest thread is here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1948087/posts

We would love to have you join us.

A cure CAN be found!

[TigersEye]

health thread ping

[texas booster]

Thanks for the ping. I would have missed this article without it.

For those that are not aware, FR has a Folding@Home team that donates computer time to help research into the basics of Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease, among others.

You download a small program onto a Windows, Linux, Mac or PS3 and let it fold when you are not using the computer.

There are over 250,000 systems crunching away at any time, and each one works on a small part of the bigger research project.

The latest thread is here:

Folding@Home - Binding of a Ligand (small molecule drug) to Proteins

We would love to have you join us.

A cure CAN be found!

[Freedom2specul8]

thanks for the post...very important advancement.

Marked to read again later..

[Freedom2specul8]

Thanks for the info! MY mother-n-law has parkinson...I’ll go check out the link.

[pandoraou812]

Thanks!

[CholeraJoe]

Thanks. I never was good at math.

[CDHart]

What a Godsend this will be! Thanks for the post. I'm a bookkeeper at a skilled nursing facility, and we have one wing for Alzheimer's patients. It's called a "secure unit" but is actually a lockdown unit so they won't wander off and get lost. This would be wonderful if it continues to show good results.

Carolyn

[G Larry]

Hey! How’d they do this without embryonic stem cells ?

[Steve0113]

ping

[TChris]

It is my great hope that one of these days Alzheimer’s will be just a vague memory...

LOLOLOLOLOLOL...

Nice. :-)

[fightinJAG]

If they have to give the drug very frequently in the spine, maybe they will develop some kind of a port, or maybe even a different delivery method.

Yeah, I get injection site troubles from time to time. FM if you want to exchange thoughts on enbrel-—I’d be interested!

[Bellflower]

What is the justification for it costing $900?

[Bellflower]

Interesting. Can you tell us any more about it? What exactly is it? Does it occur naturally?

[CholeraJoe]

Drug manufacturers don’t have to justify the cost of their drug to the FDA or the consumer. They charge whatever the market will bear. Manufacturers pay lip service to recouping research costs and high tech manufacturing processes but in fact there is little rhyme or reason.

If there were competition like in the automotive industry, I imagine prices would be lower. There’s simply not, in the drug industry. Each time a new use for a drug is discovered, the manufacturer can apply for a patent extension. Enbrel is probably about 3 or 4 years away from going off patent, so a new indication would give the patent holder another 7 years or so.

[Scarchin]

I totally agree with...what....where am I?

[50sDad]

Isn't it odd? In the Bad Old Days, you would be dead from overwork and struggling to get enough to eat long before you would suffer from this. (Romeo and Juliet of Shakespeare's pen were barely into puberty when they had their troubles, because then THAT was "middle aged" in the Middle Ages.)

If we see results, it may be on par with that Robin Williams movie with people coming out of catatonia. What if all those sharp minds can be brought back?