Japanese Scientists Make Alzheimers Progress 155
grammar fascist writes "The AP wire reports that Japanese medical researchers have developed a DNA-based vaccine that reduces the brain plaque beta amyloid without the severe brain inflammation that plagued successes in 2002. From the story 'The deposits have been cut by between 15.5 percent and 38.5 percent in mice, with no major side effects, researchers said Monday in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences [...] If all goes well, this type of treatment might be available for people in six or seven years, [lead researcher Yoh Matsumoto] said.'"
Headline Mix Up (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Headline Mix Up (Score:5, Informative)
When I submitted the story, I initially wrote the headline "Japanese Boffins Beat Alzheimer's Without Swelling," which, besides being much wittier, is obviously much clearer. Boffin swelling is a major problem in this type of research, and its defeat was very newsworthy.
Darn you, ScuttleMonkey! Darn you to heck!
Boffins Vs Scientists... FIGHT!!! (Score:1)
Or perhaps "Japanese Scientists Cure Alzheimers (99% swelling free, may contain traces of nuts)"
Re:Headline Mix Up (Score:2)
Re:Headline Mix Up (Score:2)
OTOH, speeding up Alzheimer's disease - albeit maybe just temporarily, and probably just the symptoms only - is just as easy as refusing patients sufficient supplies of water, read: de-hydrate them on purpose. Which does not hold much value in terms of research.
Re:Headline Mix Up (Score:2)
Re:Headline Mix Up (Score:1)
Re:Headline Mix Up (Score:2)
Re:Headline Mix Up (Score:2)
Ah, jolly good.
Good to see I'm not the only one.
Re:Headline Mix Up (Score:1)
Mice. Always. (Score:5, Funny)
Just ONCE I'd like to be cured of a disease ahead of the freakin' MICE.
Re:Mice. Always. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Mice. Always. (Score:2)
Re:Mice. Always. (Score:2)
Alzheimers Prevention (Score:1)
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Alzheimers Prevention (Score:2, Insightful)
definitely no cure (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Alzheimers Prevention (Score:1)
As opposed to reversing it insignificantly I suppose?
Re:Alzheimers Prevention (Score:3, Interesting)
There was a great documentary on PBS called "The Forgetting," which went into this, I highly recommend it. http://www.pbs.org/theforgetting/coping/plannin [pbs.org]
My Grandma (Score:3, Insightful)
SO GET CRACKIN!
Fortunately, she can still remember everyone (after thinking about it for a few minutes), but she forgets what happened 2 minutes ago and gets easily confused. As you might suspect, she has to be cared for 24/7. Fortunately my Grandpa can be there for her. Unfortunately, a 90 year old man with a good brain still has a failing body to deal with.
Biotech vs. IT Careers (Score:4, Interesting)
I've been doing various IT-like things my whole career, whether it's programming, consulting, or whatever. It's been a lot of fun, and I'm not particularly a biotech type, but I hope the tools we've built over the last few decades help the biotech folks do a much better job.
Re:Biotech vs. IT Careers (Score:5, Interesting)
Well you know. Smoking takes ten years off your life." Well it's the ten worst years, isn't it folks? It's the ones at the end! It's the wheelchair kidney dialysis fucking years. You can have those years!
Food for thought, as I watch my relatives fall victim to severe mental deterioration.
Re:Biotech vs. IT Careers (Score:4, Interesting)
You probably don't know how insightful your comment really is. There seems to be evidence of a link between alzheimers and acetylcholine in the brain and nicotine helping the overall situation. More study is obviously needed for us to find out if nicotine really does help treat or prevent alzheimers or if it is just some chance anomoly.
Food for thought, as I watch my relatives fall victim to severe mental deterioration.
Please, do a google search for "nicotine alzheimer's acetylcholine" and/or similar terms and see if you can dig up anything useful to your situation. I lost one of my grandfathers two decades ago to alzheimers and commercial tobaccco related diseases. Note the key point of commercial/poisonous tobacco here. He had to quit smoking many years before alzheimers kicked in, and now I have to wonder whether nicotine patches (or whatever) might have prevented the truly gut wrenching problems of alzheimers in his last few years of life.
Re:Biotech vs. IT Careers (Score:2, Informative)
What a stupid comment. You really think that lung cancer is a peaceful way to die? Painfully wasting away in a bed isn't much better. I am watching my Mother-in-law go through this with that same attitude.
Re:Biotech vs. IT Careers (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Biotech vs. IT Careers (Score:3, Interesting)
Somehow, most people change their mind on this the minute they are sick. (ok, so some old people do commit suicide, but it's not exactly t
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Biotech vs. IT Careers (Score:2)
I'm watching my father and grandfather die from mental deterioration brought on by Pick's Disease and Alzheimers.
I'd take the lung cancer in a second. YMMV.
Re:Biotech vs. IT Careers (Score:2)
The prospect of losing your mind is far scarier than actually losing it. Because when it actually happens you won't know its missing. Its much harder on those around you.
That said, the early stage Alzheimer's victims I know, while afraid, very pragmatically, just want to make the most of the time they have left before they are gone, exactly what most healthy elderly people say.
Is choking to death on a cancerous lung really
Re:Biotech vs. IT Careers (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Biotech vs. IT Careers (Score:2)
Bio-informatics (Score:3, Interesting)
There's lots of room for an IT person to contribute to biotech.
Re:Biotech vs. IT Careers (Score:2)
Re:Biotech vs. IT Careers (Score:5, Informative)
If you don't want to get it, keeping fit and doing brain-stimulation exercises (like programming) may* help.
* please note that I used the word 'may' in regards to a 'link', before you reply
At the very least, they have proven that your IQ raises and lowers depending on how stimulating your life is... There is also a strong correlation between getting girls and not being obese, which is always nice.
Re:My Grandma (Score:2)
What were we talking about?
Re:My Grandma (Score:1)
Re:My Grandma.. my Pa (Score:1)
My pop has ALS, and I read stuff about cures for Mice all the time, with the 5 to 10 year plan to develop the cure for humans. And of course he can't politely wait that long.
All kinds of nasty conditions seem to be on the verge of a cure.... in 5 years time.
Re:My Grandma (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd be quite happy to sign something now to the effect of "if I have dementia to the point where I don't even know who I am any more, and there is a potential cure or treatment, sign me up.". If it kills me, or shortens my remaining life then I haven't really lost much, those around me will have gained something as caring for someone like that is a huge burden (and often significantly shortens the life of the spouse if they are still alive), and will benefit the scientists who are testing the treatment, even if its "oh well... so it doesn't work on people afterall".
It's probably a bit late to ask me once my mind is gone though.
With alzheimers though, can they tell yet if it's that or something else without taking your brain out of year head and chopping it up? I remember quite a few years (>10) ago when I had a relative who was thus aflicted, there was lots of initial misdiagnosises (or whatever the plural of that word is), and they basically said that they only way to be sure was to wait until the patient had passed away.
because it could make it worse (Score:2)
Re:My Grandma (Score:1)
What is so bad about Alzheimers? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:What is so bad about Alzheimers? (Score:2)
Re:What is so bad about Alzheimers? (Score:2)
And with alzeimers... (Score:2)
ah, yas !
You make new friends every day!
Tobacco (Score:1)
Re:Tobacco (Score:2, Funny)
And here all this time I thought grandpa walked around with one of thoose patches on his forehead because he was crazy.
Alzheimer's Programs (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Alzheimer's Programs (Score:2)
http://www.elan.com/research_development/Pipeline _ Products/default.asp [elan.com]
In addition to AAB-001, which is currently in phase II trials, they also have AAB-002 and AAC-001. AAB-001, and AAB-002 are passive immunization agents using mono-clonal antibodies, and AAC-001 is an active immunization agent using an Immunoconjugate. Rumors are that AAB-001 is extremely efficacious. If this is true, it could conceivably be approved after phase II testing on an accelerated basis
Re:Alzheimer's Programs (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Alzheimer's Programs (Score:1, Interesting)
No, no, no!! (Score:3, Funny)
Oh, wait-
Darn RSS headline-only POS...
Re:No, no, no!! (Score:2)
Lucky you. The only headlines I get from Slasdot's RSS are "You've been banned for 48 hours".
News flash! (Score:2)
Is it still a problem of cause or effect? (Score:2)
Has someone shown yet what they actually do?
symptoms vs. cause (Score:2, Informative)
To paraphrase a quote:
'Modern medicine had tried to cure the symptoms of disease. The Cayce readings focused on building a healthy body that could throw off disease and disorder.' (emphasis added. pretty sure the quote is from With This Gift [amazon.com].)
The problem with curing a symptom is that the cause of the problem always manifests itself in a new form.
For example, the primary factor in polio outbreaks was th
Re:symptoms vs. cause (Score:1)
On the other hand, my wife died of an incurable brain tumor, Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM). Curing that "symptom" would have been nice...for now.
Re:symptoms vs. cause (Score:2)
Even a cancerous tumor is a symptom of some other problem. Consider Dr. Hamer's findings on the relationship between the psyche and disease:
Re:symptoms vs. cause (Score:2)
Dr. Hamer challenges the materialistic notion that matter is primary, therefore his revolutionary ideas must be suppressed. Governments always thr
Re:symptoms vs. cause (Score:2)
I'm not overly familiar with Hamer's work. I was exposed to it by someone who has some incredible skills in getting people what they want out of life. My experience is that the personality type
Re:symptoms vs. cause (Score:2)
These are tacked on as an afterthought. Cayce spoke extensively about good health being the product of good assimilations and eliminations. There's so much more than "five servings" in nutrition.
One of the decent things grandma's oncologist did for her was send her to a nutritionist. Later she said, "she wanted me to eat five servings
Re:symptoms vs. cause (Score:2)
But you're just a materialist, whose belief system does not allow for information being channeled fr
Re:Is it still a problem of cause or effect? (Score:2, Informative)
However, beta-amyloid seems to play a significant role. "Older" patients with Down's syndrome often develop Alzheimer's disease, and this is thought to be due to additional expression of APP (amyloid precursor protein), which is the precursor of beta-amyloid. The gene for A
Those scientists won't be too popular today. (Score:5, Funny)
GrpA.
Heh, But seriously, great research. Good to hear.
Re:Those scientists won't be too popular today. (Score:2)
Folding@Home (Score:4, Interesting)
It'd be interesting to hear if/how the Folding@Home project has helped out groups like this.
Re:Folding@Home (Score:1)
Re:Folding@Home and Nature Medicine (Score:2)
One should point out, to those confused by the research being announced as having come from Japanese, Canadian, and American scientists, that many such scientific papers are as a result of collaboration of a number of scientists and/or labs, frequently in multiple countries.
Or, you could just go to Nature Medicine [nature.com] and look it up yourself. That's where the original article that the news is based on is located.
Re:Folding@Home (Score:2)
I have a 3 gig processor and dont do much but chat and surf most the time so figure I should put that to good use and run it.
Re:Folding@Home (Score:2)
You can create a team and then see how well the team does as a whole. That's about the only kind of thing I can think of. Google did this with their Google toolbar... if you enable the Folding@Home part, you are part of their team.
Re:Folding@Home (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Folding@Home (Score:2)
That's like leaving one incandescent light on. Electricity is cheap and if it'll help out even a bit I'm happy to spend the extra ten cents a day.
Re:Folding@Home (Score:2)
On the other hand, I have no qualms about running this on my pc at work and leaving it on.
OK, but the US beat them to it last week... (Score:1, Informative)
05.31.06
http://www.byrdinstitute.org/news/institute-news/
Oh no! They made it progress?! (Score:1, Redundant)
Heh.
Aluminum... (Score:2)
Re:Aluminum... (Score:2)
I think the latest scientific evidence is that aluminum has nothing to do with Altzheimers.
Re:Aluminum... (Score:5, Informative)
ALUMINUM DOES NOT CAUSE ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE. This is a fallacy due to a Biologist not knowing how to operate an electron microscope. At that time, the "Aluminum" in Alheimer's patients' brains was the result of the biologist having the electron intensity turned-up too high, and instead of detecting just brain tissue, the biologist detected the Aluminum support holding the brain tissue.
So, the moral of the story is: KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING IN THE LABORATORY AND HAVE ACCURATE AND PRECISE DATA ANALYSIS WITH MEANINGFUL REPLICATION OF EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS BEFORE PUBLISHING IN JOURNALS!!!
It's been more than 10 years and the public still thinks that using products with "Aluminum", i.e. soda cans, anti-perspirant, etc... will cause/contribute to Alzheimer's disease. Wrong Wrong Wrong!!!
Re:Aluminum... (Score:2)
The information I've seen fails to establish a direct link between aluminum and Alzheimer's, but doesn't disprove it either.
I found some stuff (Score:2)
Keep searching, there's info out there that seems to back this up.
Re:Aluminum... (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm not sure about the GP's story, but here are two web references:
National Institute of Health [nih.gov]:
Alzheimer's Society (UK) [alzheimers.org.uk]:
Re:Aluminum... (Score:1)
I can't understand why you alarmist types would be trying to obfuscate the clearly valid factoids and overall truthiness of the article by demanding to see things like "sources" and "citations".
Why, the fact that this post contains copious amounts of capitalized letters, many exclamation points, and a passionate cry for understanding should indeed be enough to satisfy the most critical eye
Re:Aluminum... (Score:2)
No but seriously, any sources to back you up cause I'd like to start using deodorant again.
Re:Aluminum... (Score:2)
seems to suggest that aluminium has no proven effect either way, many other articles seem to go with the traditional alumium causes alzheimers desease. many state scientists disagree.
however it seems aluminium is unavoidable and that since we are all universally exposed the incidence of alzheimers should be higher. Maybe i will try to avoid aluminium when I have lost a significant amount of weight and have
Kill the scientists! (Score:1, Flamebait)
Japanese Scientists Make Alzheimers Progress
So if we eliminate the Japanese scientists, would it slow Alzheimer's down?
Alzheimer's isn't so bad. . . (Score:1)
Is that you, Clarence? I haven't seen you for years. Do you remember the time the Mercury backfired and almost tore your arm off while you were trying to get it started? Those were the days alright.
Anyway . . . what was I talking about?
Alzheimer's isn't so bad.
Is that you Clarence. . . ?
Alzheimer's disaster looming (Score:2, Informative)
The researchers (Score:2)
But are extracellular plaques the probelm?? (Score:2, Informative)
Immunotherapy has been successfully used in multiple mouse models of AD, including peripheral active and passive immuunisation. But here is the question: Is removing extracellular amyloid plaques in human AD going to cure the disease?? The probable answer is no, more and more researchers are showing that plaq
Six or seven years (Score:2)
Yay.
Damn The Irony! (Score:2)
Either way, my gran had alzheimers for a few years before she passed away. It's a horrible affliction, and it's always good to see progress being made in these areas.
Silly Japanese... (Score:1)
Uh, shouldn't we be trying to STOP the progress of Alzheimers?
Was it the Japanese? (Score:1)
Wait, I mispronounced -- I meant to say Canadians [www.cbc.ca]
Damn. Did it again. I really meant to say Americans [seniorjournal.com].
I wonder, if this works (Score:2)
Great News (Score:2)
Woah! Wrong way! (Score:1)
twist (Score:2)
No major side effects (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Now Remember... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Now Remember... (Score:1)
Just to raise me up a crop of Mental Floss Raisin' it up
Waxen it down
In a little white box
I can sell uptown