Free Republic

A new study of a promising Alzheimer's treatment has doctors buzzing that the drug may reverse the deadly neurodegenerative disease. But the new treatment isn't a new drug at all, rather a skin cancer pill that's been FDA-approved for more than a decade. The drug, bexarotene, reversed signs of Alzheimer's in mice brains and also improved their memory in as little as 72 hours, according to the study. "This is an unprecedented finding," study author Paige Cramer, a PhD candidate at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, said in a university written statement. "Previously, the best existing treatment for Alzheimer's...

A skin cancer drug has reversed Alzheimer's in mice - raising hope that it could be similarly successful against the incurable disease in humans. Now families of Alzheimer's sufferers are now bombarding physicians with requests for the drug, called bexarotene and marketed as Targretin. In research published in the journal Science, mice were engineered to exhibit Alzheimer's symptoms - such as forgetfulness and rapid cell death. After they took the drug, they became instantly smarter, performing better Researchers at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio added that plaque in the mice brains that was causing Alzheimer's had started to...

A widely available cancer drug has shown remarkable success in reversing Alzheimer's disease in mice, raising hope of a breakthrough against incurable dementia in humans, US researchers said Thursday. Mice treated with the drug, known as bexarotene, became rapidly smarter and the plaque in their brains that was causing their Alzheimer's started to disappear within hours, said the research in the journal Science. "We were shocked and amazed," lead author Gary Landreth of the Department of Neurosciences at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Ohio told AFP. "Things like this had never, ever been seen before," he said....