Posted on 02/17/2012 8:20:56 AM PST by marthemaria
Doctors are calling for a clinical trial of an experimental drug treatment that it is claimed can reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease "in minutes".
U.S. researchers say the treatment allowed an 82-year- old sufferer to recognise his wife for the first time in years.
In the UK, specialists believe the claims should be properly tested as only a few patients have been treated so far.
The treatment involves injecting a drug called Enbrel - which is normally used to treat arthritis - into the spine at the neck.
Patients are then tilted to encourage blood flow into the brain where the drug is designed to block a chemical responsible for inflammation. At least one Alzheimer's patient had his symptoms reversed "in minutes" while others have shown some continuing improvement in problems such as forgetfulness and confusion after weekly injections.
They needed less help from carers during treatment, which appears to reach a plateau at three months.
Around 50 people are being treated by the Institute of Neurological Research, a private clinic in California, with some having had injections for three years.
In one case, the clinic has video evidence of Marvin Miller, 82, which showed he was unable to answer basic questions by a nurse, or identify-everyday objects like a bracelet and a pencil.
Shortly afterwards he is injected with the drug and it is claimed that five minutes later he could greet his shocked wife, who said he had not recognised her for years.
The experiment follows the discovery that levels of TNF (tumour necrosis factor) can be up to 25 times higher in the fluid surrounding the brain in sufferers of Alzheimer's disease.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
“What a ray of hope!”
Don’t get too excited. The FDA will never allow this drug to reach US markets. There is too much money to be lost by Health care industries that “focus” on the treatment of this horrible disease.
------------------------
You are soooo bad . . .
lol
This is an old story, from 2008, and there doesn’t seem to be much new information on it since then. Makes you wonder how valid it is.
Uh .. Enbrel is already on the market.
My wife takes a shot for Rheumatoid Arthritis once a week.
Without it, she would be crippled.
My wife was an early user of Enbrel. It did keep her from becoming a cripple but led to what some of her doctors suspect, development of a tumor/bone cancer in her jaw.
She ended up having over 50% of her jaw removed, 12 months of chemo, 7 life-threatening hospitalizations with infections and three operations, the last of which entailed 5 surgeons taking a bone from her leg and refashioning a jaw bone that was grafted where her old one used to be.
So, while we really were thankful for Enbrel, in her case it led to some alarming consequences. Needless to say, her doctors now have her on other drugs.
Good luck to your wife and her RA. It is a dreadful disease and most people think it is just like regular arthritis with stiff joints, etc.
My wife’s mother died in the hospital shortly after being operated on to try to fuse vertebrae in her neck as RA had virtually dissolved hers. Tough stuff.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.