
Odor biomarker for Alzheimer's disease - davidst
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-01-odor-biomarker-alzheimer-disease.html
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ergothus
Reminds me of this, regarding a woman who (allegedly) can smell Parkinson's:

[http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/301485.php](http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/301485.php)

While I know of no reason to dismiss these out of hand, I'd also be more
comfortable seeing them discussed in more depth. Can anyone with actual
medical knowledge speak up?

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jleader
There's a slightly longer press release about the Alzheimers findings at
[http://www.monell.org/news/news_releases/alzheimers_disease_...](http://www.monell.org/news/news_releases/alzheimers_disease_odor;)
searching for the co-authors' names led to what appears to be the paper:
[http://www.nature.com/articles/srep19495](http://www.nature.com/articles/srep19495)

"Volatile metabalome" sounds so much more scholarly than "pee smell"!

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chuckledog
Fixed link:
[http://www.monell.org/news/news_releases/alzheimers_disease_...](http://www.monell.org/news/news_releases/alzheimers_disease_odor)

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mhkool
Another article where the editor is not up to date. Alzheimer is already known
to be reversable (curable). Dr Dale Bredesen wrote an article about how he
reversed Alzheimer in 9 out of 10 patients:
[http://www.impactaging.com/papers/v6/n9/full/100690.html](http://www.impactaging.com/papers/v6/n9/full/100690.html)

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nitrogen
Can you provide a secondary source with similar claims?

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e40
Yeah, bold claims.

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paulmd
That article smells fishy as hell. And if Alzheimer's were treatable, today,
it would be a huge huge deal, not something being peddled around as a miracle
cure on the basis of a 10-person "study".

They're making progress though. They've found at least one candidate drug that
appears to clear up the Amyloid-beta plaques in mice.

[http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/151208/ncomms9997/full/nco...](http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/151208/ncomms9997/full/ncomms9997.html)

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DrScump
But are Amyloid-beta plaques a proven _cause_ of Alzheimer's? Or is it just
correlation at this point?

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paulmd
If you inject amyloid-beta peptide extract from an AD-infected mouse into the
brain of another, it then starts growing the usual plaques[1]. And A-beta
plaque deposits are basically the distinguishing characteristic of
Alzheimer's. So in my book that's very strong experimental evidence that
A-beta is the causal mechanism of Alzheimer's and not merely a side effect.

It seems to be basically a misfolded protein, like CJD or mad-cow.

Usual caveats - nothing in science is ever proven to 100% certainty. Remove
seal before use. Ask your doctor if Alzheimer's is right for you.

[1]
[http://www.jneurosci.org/content/20/10/3606.full](http://www.jneurosci.org/content/20/10/3606.full)

