Ed note: The Alzheimer’s drugs have been very disappointing. So are strawberries and curry part of the solution? Creative scientists at the Salk Institute are looking at the possibility that “anti-aging” treatments may be part of the answer. The article below from the San Diego Tribune is worth reading.
Aging has been traditionally considered an inevitable part of life, not a disease. But modern molecular biology is uncovering how aging affects the body beyond the wrinkles, gray hair and aching joints.
Scientists have made great progress in fighting many of the illnesses more likely to afflict the elderly, including cancer and heart disease. But researchers have made very little progress against one of the most devastating age-related diseases: Alzheimer’s, which slowly robs patients of cognition and memory until they die.ADVERTISING
About 5 million Americans are estimated to have Alzheimer’s, according to the National Institutes of Health. Another 1 million have mild cognitive impairment, which puts people at elevated risk for developing full-blown Alzheimer’s.
Researchers know a great deal about Alzheimer’s. They know how certain toxic proteins slowly destroy neurons and the brain. They can even see the telltale signs of Alzheimer’s in brain images that reveal these toxic proteins accumulating in the living brain.
But the drugs they have developed with this knowledge have failed to stop or even slow down the disease. At best, they can temporarily relieve symptoms.
Faced with this lack of progress and great need, some scientists say we need to think entirely differently about Alzheimer’s. Instead of developing drugs to treat the disease itself, they advocate developing drugs that generally promote brain health. Specifically, they want to slow down the harmful changes in the brain that accumulate with age.
Early this year, this idea will literally be put to the test. For the first time, humans will be given an Alzheimer’s drug developed to slow down harmful age-related changes in the brain. When given the drug, strains of mice that age rapidly preserved a youthful appearance longer, and performed better on cognitive tests such as running mazes.
Abrexa Pharmaceuticals of San Diego has licensed the drug, developed by scientists at the Salk Institute. Privately held Abrexa recently received U.S. regulatory permission to begin human testing.