Hot of the Press: Potentially Huge Breakthrough in Alzheimers

[Guest guest]

This is excellent news, I think!

http://tinyurl.com/857ue

Alzheimer's cognitive decline slowed in experimental gene therapy:

study

Sun Apr 24, 4:34 PM ET

PARIS (AFP) - An experimental treatment of Alzheimer's disease where

genetically modified tissue is surgically inserted into the

patient's brain appears to reduce the rate of cognitive decline,

according to preliminary results of a US study published in the

journal Nature Medicine.

Eight volunteers with mild Alzheimer's disease, aged 54 to 76, took

part in the experiment, according to researchers at the University

of California in San Diego who conducted the study.

Alzheimers is a brain disorder that gradually destroys a persons

memory and other cognitive abilities making the victim unable to

communicate and carry out daily activities.

In the first-ever gene therapy for Alzheimer's, the study found that

the rate of disease progression seemed to be reduced by 36-51

percent for a mean period of nearly two years using two common

measures of cognitive function in Alzheimer's.

In the six to 18 months immediately following the treatment,

cognition apparently improved or stabilized in five of the six

subjects who completed the therapy, the study said.

Current approved medications for treating Alzheimer's have an

estimated impact on these cognitive measures of five percent, and

are not known to affect decline over prolonged periods, the study

said.

" If validated in further clinical trials, this would represent a

substanially more effective therapy than current treatments for

Alzheimer's disease, " said Mark Tuszynski, the study's principal

investigator.

The study, however, did not include a comparative placebo group and

researchers cautioned that the preliminary results were only for the

Phase 1 trial and more clinical tests were needed.