New Hope

Hope

A study found that in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s, stimulating the innate immune system reduced the amyloid plaque in their brains and improved cognition. Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by the deposit of amyloid protein in the brain. Researchers think that clearing those deposits might prevent the cognitive effects of the disease. There appeared to be no toxic side effects. The animals were treated with DNA constructs called CpG oligodeoxynucleotides, a relatively new pharmacotherapeutic class currently being evaluated in cancer, viral infection, and asthma/allergy.
The constructs used in this study have already been shown to be safe in humans, suggesting that clinical trials in humans could occur relatively quickly. In cognitive tests at 17 months, the treated animals did significantly better than untreated mice at navigating a maze and were not significantly different from wild-type animals.
When the researchers examined the brains of the animals, they found the level of amyloid in the cortex of treated animals was 66% lower than in untreated mice.
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For the first time, an experimental drug shows promise for halting the progression of Alzheimer’s disease by taking a new approach: breaking up the protein tangles that clog victims’ brains.
The encouraging results from the drug called Rember. The tangles are made of a protein called tau and develop inside nerve cells. Studies suggest that Rember can dissolve them.
For decades, scientists have focused on a different protein — beta-amyloid, which forms sticky clumps outside of the cells — but have yet to get a workable treatment.
The drug, Rember, is in the second of three stages of development, and scientists are paying special attention to potential treatments because of the enormity of the illness, which afflicts more than 26 million people worldwide and is mushrooming as the population ages.
In the study, 321 patients were given one of three doses of Rember or dummy capsules three times a day. The capsules containing the highest dose had a flaw in formulation that kept them from working, and the lowest dose was too weak to keep the disease from worsening.
However, the middle dose helped, as measured by a widely used score of mental performance.
“The people on placebo lost an average of 7 percent of their brain function over six months whereas those on treatment didn’t decline at all,” he said.
After about a year, the placebo group had continued to decline but those on the mid-level dose of Rember had not. At 19 months, the treated group still had not declined as Alzheimer’s patients have been known to do.
Two types of brain scans were available on about a third of participants, and they show the drug was active in brain areas most affected by tau tangles.
“The company is raising money now for another test of the drug to start this year.
The main chemical in Rember is available now in a different formulation in a prescription drug sometimes used since the 1930s for chronic bladder infections — methylene blue. However, it predates the federal Food and Drug Administration and was never fully studied for safety and effectiveness, and not in the form used in the Alzheimer’s study. Even if bigger, more rigorous studies show it works, Rember is still several years away from being available, and experts warned against overexuberance.