

Discovery of the decade? Injection 'could cure Alzheimer's in minutes' - theoneill
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/health/article3603996.ece?a=3603996

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tel
For the work I do in lab (testing anti-inflammatory drugs in _in vitro_ neural
models) I did some research into etanercept when the first paper was
published.

Etanercept works roughly by cleaning up that TNF-alpha which is plaqued around
in Alzheimer's. It was FDA approved as an arthritis drug which (and I don't
fully understand this part) allows doctors to attempt novel treatments using
it without much further FDA approval.

Etanercept really does appear to cure the symptoms of Alzheimer's, _quickly_.
The real issues are long-term effects for this sort of treatment and whether
cleaning up the TNF-alpha actually does anything for fixing the causes of
Alzheimer's.

~~~
agentbleu
This is Enbrel

Safety After a number of studies and reports of adverse reactions in patients
receiving anti-TNF alpha therapy (including serious and sometimes fatal blood
disorders, infections, rare reports of lymphoma and solid tissue cancers, rare
reports of serious liver injury, and rare reports of demyelinating central
nervous system disorders), rare reports of congestive heart failure, the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration issued a warning to doctors appearing in the
respective product labeling of these drugs instructing them to screen and
monitor potential patients more carefully. [7]

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dcurtis
Look at this MRI of a Alzheimer's patient before onset (right), and after
onset (left).

[http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/neuroslides/slides/slide193.jp...](http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/neuroslides/slides/slide193.jpg)

It looks like there is PHYSICAL damage done to the brain-- there is actualy
missing brain matter; as you can see, the sinuses have enlarged in size.

How can this injection reverse that? I call false until they publish
something.

~~~
tel
They _did_ publish something. I can't link the actual documents, but if you
have access to the journals it's:

Tobinick E, Gross H: _Rapid cognitive improvement in Alzheimer's disease
following perispinal etanercept administration_. J Neuroinflammation 2008, 5.

There's also a commentary paper,

Griffin, W. Sue T.: _Perispinal etanercept: Potential as an Alzheimer
therapeutic_. J Neuroinflammation 2008, 5.

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aswanson
Hoping its true but having a hard time believing it. Is neurological damage
even reversible?

~~~
etal
I understood it to be something like a protein plaque that forms in the brain.
The plaque shows up in cross sections looking like tar -- it's surprising the
brain can function at all, having been altered that much.

Which makes it all the weirder that this treatment targets inflammation,
allegedly. If the drug instantly melted the plaque, opening up the old
synapses again, I could believe that. Maybe it does. Medical companies don't
always understand exactly _why_ their product works before starting trials.

Also noteworthy: it says a few patients have been on the treatment for several
months, implying that the effect might be temporary. No mention of
habituation, a la L-DOPA.

~~~
dcurtis
Pharmaceutical companies sometimes even release medications without knowing
why they work.

Kind of like Isotretinoin, which says in the prescriber's pamphlet, "The exact
mechanism of action of isotretinoin is not currently understood."

Made me feel really great to be taking something that is "not currently
understood," though approved as safe by the FDA.

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cstejerean
For some reason the first image that came to mind when reading this was the
"experimental" treatments in the last Resident Evil (where the old guy seems
fine after receiving some shot and is able to operate the camera, only to go
crazy a couple of minutes later and kill the two doctors).

I wouldn't have expected the cure for Alzheimer's to be something that is
effective within minutes.

~~~
aswanson
_I wouldn't have expected the cure for Alzheimer's to be something that is
effective within minutes._

Hence the reason for some of my skepticism. How can you even diagnose it that
fast?

