In the News: Alzheimer's Cases May Triple By 2050

http://uctv.tv/shows/Alzheimers-Diagnosis-and-Clinical-Trials-Heartache-Hope-Americas-Alzheimers-Epidemic-Ep-2-23979

by RTT Staff Writer 2/7/2013

The rate of Alzheimer's in the U.S. could as much as triple by 2050, says a new study from research done at the Rush Institute for Healthy Aging in Chicago. Currently about 5 million Americans suffer from the condition and that number is expected to rise to about 13.8 million.

For the study, researchers examined health records from 10,802 Chicago residents of 65 years or older between 1993 to 2011. The test subjects were reviewed every three years for possible dementia risk and that data was compiled into a national projection.

"We're going to need coordinated efforts for this upcoming epidemic," says lead author Jennifer Weuve. "People have trouble getting their heads around these numbers, but imagine if everyone in the state of Illinois (population 12.8 million) had Alzheimer's. I look around Chicago and can't imagine it."

Dallas Anderson, director of population studies and epidemiology of Alzheimer's disease at the National Institute on Aging, adds: "These numbers are more credible because they involve new Census data. If you know anyone who has Alzheimer's disease now, you know how dire this projection is for the nation."

In the News:Ginkgo Biloba Doesn't Prevent Alzheimer's, Study Finds

Well, maybe it still works on regular memory?.....

Reuters  |  Posted: 09/06/2012

by Kate Kelland
London (Reuters) - A Chinese herb called Ginkgo biloba billed by some as a potential over-the-counter wonder drug that boosts mental dexterity and sharpens the memory has been found to do nothing to prevent the onset of Alzheimer's disease.

A large scientific study of the supplement by researchers in France found that people who took twice-daily doses of Ginkgo biloba were no less likely to develop the brain-wasting disease than those given a placebo, or dummy pill.

The study, published in The Lancet Neurology journal on Thursday, suggests anyone taking the herb extract in the hope of escaping Alzheimer's is wasting their money, experts said.

"For a while it was hoped that ginkgo biloba could be the wonder drug," said Jess Smith, a spokeswoman for the Alzheimer's Society.

"However, in recent years evidence ... has repeatedly shown that it does not have any benefits in preventing the disease or slowing down symptoms."

The trial was conducted over five years and involved 2,854 people in France who were aged 70 years or older and who had already visited their doctors with concerns about their memory.

Ginkgo biloba extract - which is derived from the leaves of the Ginkgo biloba tree - was given to 1,406 patients, while the other 1,414 were given a placebo designed to have a similar taste and appearance to the Ginkgo pills.

Researchers then used standard tests to assess the patients' memory, cognitive function and dementia status.

After five years, 61 people in the ginkgo biloba group, or 4 percent, had been diagnosed with probable Alzheimer's disease, compared with 73, or 5 percent, in the placebo group.

The researchers, led by Bruno Vellas of the Hopital Casselardit in Toulouse, France, said the difference in results for the two groups was not statistically significant. The study also appeared to confirm the findings of a 2009 trial in the United States which had similar results.

NICE THEORY "DESTROYED BY UGLY FACT"
Vellas said that while the results suggested regular use of Ginkgo biloba did not protect the elderly from progression to Alzheimer's, more studies were needed to examine longer-term use of the herb and other potential prevention measures.

An estimated 18 million people worldwide suffer from Alzheimer's disease and as populations age, rates of the disease are expected to soar.

The fatal brain disease, which has no cure and few effective treatments, affects memory, thinking and behavior and is placing an increasingly heavy burden on societies and economies across the world.

"The fact that prevalence of this debilitating disorder is expected to quadruple by 2050 suggests that research into preventative therapies for this disease needs to receive urgent attention," Vellas said in a statement.

Edzard Ernst, a professor and former director of complementary medicine at Britain's University of Exeter, said the study's findings were important, even if they were disappointing for those who want to believe in herbal remedies.

"This is by far the largest trial of Ginkgo so far," he said in an emailed comment. "The results are disappointing and fail to show that this herbal remedy reduces the risk of Alzheimer's. Another beautiful herbal theory destroyed by an ugly fact."

In the News: Research Halted on Major Alzheimer's Drug

An artist's representation of amyloid protein plaques in the brain. It looks a bit like a background panel from a Steve Ditko Doctor Strange yarn.

by John Gever
MedPage Today Senior Editor
Aug. 7, 2012
In the wake of another negative trial with the anti-amyloid drug bapineuzumab, Pfizer and Janssen said they were halting development of the product for mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease.

All ongoing studies with the drug, a monoclonal antibody intended to break up beta amyloid protein plaques, will be discontinued, according to a statement released by Pfizer. This includes extension studies of previous randomized trials.

The decision came after a placebo-controlled phase III trial led by Janssen, known as Study 301, failed to meet its coprimary endpoints involving cognitive and functional performance in patients without the APOE4 genotype.

Read this story on www.medpagetoday.com.

In late July, the companies said a companion trial called Study 302 also failed to meet its main endpoints. The 302 trial had enrolled only patients with the APOE4 genotype.

However, the firms' statement left the door open for developing the drug for preclinical Alzheimer's disease, which many researchers believe is a more appropriate target anyway for anti-amyloid drugs. Pfizer and Janssen stopped short of saying that all development efforts would be terminated.

By the time symptoms develop, these scientists reason, the progression of cognitive decline may be too advanced to be affected by halting or reversing accumulation of beta amyloid plaques. Recent imaging studies with amyloid-specific tracers have indicated that plaques develop long before symptoms appear.

Other anti-amyloid strategies have also yielded disappointing results in clinical trials involving patients with established Alzheimer's disease.

Pfizer said results of both studies would be presented at a European neurology meeting in September.

By the azure amulet of Amyloid, I call upon Doctor Strange to take a journey to the center of our beset Baby Boomer brains. Art by comic book legend Steve Ditko.

Before I Forget: New Alzheimer's News

As Droopy would drawl, "Gruesome, isn't it?"

by Thomas H. Maugh II Los Angeles Times  July 11, 2012

Researchers have found the first gene mutation that protects against Alzheimer's disease, a finding that supports a now-controversial theory about the cause of the disease and that could eventually lead to the development of new drugs to treat the disorder. The gene mutation also protects against aging, suggesting that the two diseases have mechanisms in common.

Alzheimer's affects an estimated 5.4 million Americans, and the prevalence increases with age:
13% of those older than 65 and 45% of those over the age of 85 have it.

The disease is characterized by the buildup in the brain of particles called amyloid plaque, which are composed of a protein called amyloid beta. Amyloid beta is produced by the breakdown of a larger protein called amyloid precursor protein, or APP. Researchers have so far identified at least two dozen variants of APP that produce early-onset Alzheimer's disease in people younger than 65. The new variant, reported online Wednesday in the journal Nature, is the first that protects against Alzheimer's.

The idea that breakdown of APP causes Alzheimer's has led many pharmaceutical companies to search for drugs that could delay Alzheimer's by inhibiting the breakdown. Unfortunately, clinical trials of those drugs have been almost uniformly unsuccessful, leading many critics to doubt the theory. The new findings, however, tend to place it on firmer ground.

A team led by Dr. Kari Stefansson of deCode Genetics in Reykjavik, Iceland, deciphered the whole genome of 1,795 Icelanders looking for rare variants associated with Alzheimer's and found the new mutation, which is present in about 0.45% of the population there. Unpublished data show that it is even rarer in the United States, found in only about 1 in every 10,000 people. That suggests the mutation arose relatively recently in Northern Europe, Stefansson said.

The data showed that the mutant gene was present in 0.13% of those with a diagnosis of Alzheimer's, but in 0.62% of those over 85 who did not have the disease. The variant was also present in 0.79% of those over age 85 whose brain functions were normal. Furthermore, those with the variant performed significantly better in tests of cognitive functioning.

Surprisingly, the variant also seems to protect against other risk factors for the disease. At least 90% of people with two copies of a gene called ApoE4 normally get Alzheimer's by age 80. But Stefansson observed 25 people in the study with the new variant and two ApoE4 genes, and none had Alzheimer's.

Stefansson predicted that pharmaceutical companies will now accelerate their search for new drugs that can somehow mimic the action of the gene variant.