Drug Shows Early Promise Against Alzheimer's

The feed delivers news from Ars Technica about a new and promising treatment for Alzheimer's. The drug Etanercept works by disabling the functioning of a cytokine called TNFa, and reportedly caused immediate improvement — in minutes — in mental functioning in one Alaheimer's patient. Double-blind studies have not yet begun.

Long-term memory restored?

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TFA talks about substantial mental improvements, but it doesn't say whether the most disturbing effect of Alzheimer's was reversed: long-term memory malfunctions. If it doesn't help with that, it's worthless. I'd much rather that my grandparents could recognize me and remember the good times, and be bed-ridden, rather than be functional but still not know who anyone is, etc. No disease could be worse than losing one's mind, if you've never had family with Alzheimer's, be thankful.

What is its effect on "normal" people?

[mark-t]

Because if this drug has even the smallest viability as a memory enhancer for people who otherwise don't have any notable memory issues... then, uh... wow. The possibilities are mind-boggling. I could also see a huge black market segment for this among college and university students. Steroids for brain... what a concept.

Re:My Friend

[mark-t]

Are you suggesting that they should therefore halt current research, so as not to offend the friends and family of the people who may live long enough to see the promise of a viable cure, but not live long enough to see it implemented and deployed?

Re:Long-term memory restored?

[Phoenix666]

That's interesting. My grandmother has Alzheimer's and while she can remember people and events from 50 years ago with perfect clarity, it's the more recent stuff that escapes her.

Also, it's the ongoing challenge of her wandering off or forgetting basic needs that's been the hardest for my family to deal with. In fact it's sparked a whole family feud among my father and his brother and sister because they're grappling with how best to care for her.

So my family's case is the opposite of yours; and this drug sounds very promising because it would not only restore my 84-year old grandmother's quality of life (and her parents both lived to be over 100), but also stop the disease from shredding my family's ties.

Re:What is its effect on "normal" people?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm on Etanercept (50mg subcut injection twice a week) at the moment for psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis (so "normal" in the sense of not having any neurological disorders that I'm aware of) and whilst it's effective against those (esp. the arthritis) I can't say that it has any noticeable cognitive benefits as far as I can ascertain.

YMMV though, but I wouldn't go taking it just for kicks, as a) it's expensive as hell (a 25 mg vial costs the NHS 90 GBP + VAT in the UK) and b) it's a fairly potent immunosuppresant with potentially all kinds of severe side effects. Saying that, it's miles safer than the insane amount of cyclosporin I was taking earlier.

PS and a bit OT: I'm being moved onto another anti-TNFa called Infliximab next week, anyone here taken it for psoriasis/PA? I've read up on it and it seems quite promising.

Re:Long-term memory restored?

[rucs_hack]

Why are "substantial mental improvements" worthless? Anything that improves the condition of the patients is probably worthwhile.

I spent five years working with Alzheimers clients, and I see two sides to this. For the family it's often that their relative loses an awareness of them which is the worst part.

But I've seen clients who retained some memory of their family begging them in brief moments of lucidity to forget about them. It's heart breaking. Sometimes I thought the clients with little or no recollection of family had an easier time.

On the other hand, improving quality of life in any way can make the client with memory loss have a much improved life, even if they can't recall much or anything about their family. I spent a *lot* of time focused on this, and it can be done in a great many cases. A drug that improved mental abilities need not do too much to assist with this.

If I'm to be brutal though, the best way I found of improving quality of life for my clients, sometimes massively, was getting them off the often sickening amounts of anti psychotics and other mental straight jackets they had been prescribed by clueless fuckwit doctors prior to coming under my care.

That problem needs to be addressed first in my opinion.