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Alzheimer's & Dementia
Alzheimer's 'Cocktail' Hailed as New Hope for
Patients
 April
28, 2006 - MIT brain researchers have developed a "cocktail" of dietary
supplements, now in human clinical trials, that holds promise for the
treatment of Alzheimer's disease. For years, doctors have encouraged
people to consume foods such as fish that are rich in omega-3 fatty
acids because they appear to improve memory and other brain functions.
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Related Stories |
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Nine Easy Steps to Fight Age-Related Memory Loss
By Tucker Sutherland, editor
April 27, 2006 If there is a universal concern
among senior citizens, it has to be the fear of mental decline.
Alzheimer's disease, of course, being the ultimate. The May issue of the
Harvard Men's Health Watch offers nine steps senior citizens and baby
boomers well, any
adult, actually - can take to keep their minds healthy. Every senior
should post this list where it will remind them often of these easy
steps we can all take to fight off age-related memory loss.
Read more...
Guest Opinion
The Big 'A' - As in Alzheimer's
A disease many of us will have to reckon
with
By Norma Sherry
April 25, 2006 - The Big A. Alzheimers Disease. A
dreadful looming fear that rears its ugly head every time we walk into
the other room and cant remember why or momentarily cant recall where
we left our car keys, or who the voice is on the other end of the phone.
These temporary lapses of memory, thankfully, are not precursors to
Alzheimers. Were told they are more likely indicators that we have too
much on our minds.
Read
more...
Report on Alzhemed Clinical Trial Says Alzheimer's
Stabilized in 4 of 9
Tramiprostate product reduces amyloid accumulation - major culprit in AD
April 24, 2006 A presentation Saturday on the
potential use of tramiprostate (Alzhemed) in the treatment of
Alzheimer's disease said stabilization of the disease occurred in four
out of nine patients with a mild form of AD after three years of
treatment. Read
more...
Pharmaceutical-Funded Coalition Says Boomers Want
Action by FDA on Alzheimer's Drugs
ACT-AD Coalition calls for recognition of
Alzheimer's as urgent national health crisis
April 27, 2006 A new coalition began an effort
today to speed up the approval of Alzheimer's treatment drugs by the
U.S. Food and Drug by releasing a survey of Baby Boomers' attitudes
about the disease. This effort by the new ACT-AD Coalition is supported by an educational grant from
two of the leading companies working to get Alzheimer's treatments
approved by the FDA Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and Elan Corporation, a
biotechnology company.
Read more...
Read more
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Alzheimer's & Dementia |
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The MIT research suggests that a cocktail treatment
of omega-3 fatty acids and two other compounds normally present in the
blood, could delay the cognitive decline seen in Alzheimer's disease,
which afflicts an estimated 4 million to 5 million Americans.
"It's been enormously frustrating to have so little
to offer people that have (Alzheimer's) disease," said Richard Wurtman,
the Cecil H. Green Distinguished Professor of Neuropharmacology at MIT,
who led the research team. The study appears in the May 9 issue of Brain
Research.
Wurtman will present the research at the
International Academy of Nutrition and Aging 2006 Symposium on Nutrition
and Alzheimer's Disease/Cognitive Decline in Chicago on Tuesday, May 2.
The three compounds in the treatment cocktail -
omega-3 fatty acids, uridine and choline - are all needed by brain
neurons to make phospholipids, the primary component of cell membranes.
After adding those supplements to the diets of
gerbils, the researchers observed a dramatic increase in the amount of
membranes that form brain cell synapses, where messages between cells
are relayed. Damage in brain synapses is believed to cause the dementia
that characterizes Alzheimer's disease.
If the successful results obtained in gerbils can
be duplicated in the ongoing human trials, the new treatment could offer
perhaps not a cure but a long-term Alzheimer's treatment similar to what
L-dopa, a dopamine precursor, does for Parkinson's patients, said
Wurtman, a professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences.
"It doesn't cure Parkinson's, but what it does do
is to help replace something that's missing. It's not permanent, but it
has had an enormous impact on people who have Parkinson's," he said.
The new potential treatment offers a different
approach from the traditional tactic of targeting the amyloid plaques
and tangles that develop in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. Until
recently, most researchers believed these plaques and tangles caused the
cognitive decline. But the failure of this hypothesis to lead to an
effective treatment for Alzheimer's disease has caused some scientists
to theorize that, though the plaques and tangles are always associated
with the disease, they may not be the main cause of the dementia, nor
the best target for treating it.
Instead, the new research focuses on brain
synapses, where neurotransmitters such as dopamine, acetylcholine,
serotonin and glutamate carry messages from presynaptic neurons to
receptors in the membranes of postsynaptic neurons. In Alzheimer's
patients, synapses in the cortex and hippocampus, which are involved in
learning and memory, are damaged.
After the dietary supplements were given, the
researchers detected a large increase in the levels of specific brain
proteins known to be concentrated within synapses, indicating that more
synaptic membranes had formed, Wurtman said. Synaptic membrane protein
levels rose if the gerbils were given either omega-3 fatty acids or
uridine plus choline. However, the most dramatic upsurge was observed in
gerbils fed all three compounds.
"To my knowledge, this is the first concrete
explanation for the behavioral effects of taking omega-3 fatty acids,"
said Wurtman.
Choline can be found in meats, nuts and eggs, and
omega-3 fatty acids are found in a variety of sources, including fish,
eggs, flaxseed and meat from grass-fed animals. Uridine, which is found
in RNA and produced by the liver and kidney, is not obtained from the
diet. However, uridine is found in human breast milk, which is a good
indication that supplementary uridine is safe for humans to consume,
Wurtman said.
Recent studies by the researchers at MIT, and by
scientists at Cambridge University in England, showed that either
uridine or omega-3 fatty acids can promote the growth of neurites, which
are small outgrowths of neuronal cell membranes. That further supports
the hypothesis that omega-3 fatty acids increase synaptic membrane
formation, said Wurtman.
Alzheimer's patients in the clinical trials, which
will involve multiple medical centers, are being given a drink that
contains the compounds under study, or a taste-matched placebo.
"If it works as well on the brains of people with
Alzheimer's disease as it does in laboratory animals, I think there will
be a lot of interest," Wurtman said.
About the study:
Other authors on the paper are Ismail Ulus, Mehmet
Cansev, Carol Watkins, Lei Wang and George Marzloff of MIT's Department
of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. Ulus and Cansev also work at the Uludag
University School of Medicine in Turkey.
The research was supported by the National
Institutes of Health, the Center for Brain Sciences and Metabolism
Charitable Trust and the Turkish Academy of Sciences.
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