Scientists May Have Found New Way to Treat Alzheimer's in Study

[truthisfreedom]

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=a69ZqMMSz.S4&refer=us

Scientists May Have Found New Way to Treat Alzheimer's in Study

Aug. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Pfizer Inc. and Cleveland Clinic researchers may have uncovered a new route to keep the body from making a substance that clogs the brain in Alzheimer's disease, according to a study in the Aug. 1 Nature Medicine.


Scientists and drug companies have been searching for a way to disable or hamper the body's production of BACE1, an enzyme responsible for the production of beta amyloid, since it was discovered in 1999. Beta amyloid is the main component of the plaque that collects between the nerve cells in the brains of people with Alzheimer's, a central feature of the disease.

<snip>

``We identified a potential therapeutic target that may inhibit the production of amyloid and slow down the progression of Alzheimer's disease,'' Yan, an associate staff member of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, said in a telephone interview.


About 4.5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's, which claimed the life of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan last month after a decade-long battle with the disease.

<snip>

[Lithos]

1. Might also be good for those who suffer from Mad Cow

And given the fact that the government is in the hands of the agri-business corporations over this issue, I suspect we shall be seeing more and more of this.

L-

[Trillo]

3. Have citizens become "extended" lab rats? nt

[Mikimouse]

2. Interesting timing for this...

Michael Reagan was just spewing about this about a week ago, while making lame innuendos about Ron and Patti for their support of stem cell research. He apparently is on some board (just because of his name, nothing else, of course) that includes Pfizer, and is tied to alternative treatments of Alzheimer's. It is veru interesting that this announcement comes out just a few days after Ron Reagan's speech at the DNC. I call a big ol' BULLSHIT, and shame on Pfizer and the Cleveland Clinic if their aim is to undercut stem cell research and it's proponents.

[James T. Kirk]

4. I don't think there is any issue with timing.

These studies take a long time to do. I think it was probably already on the way to publication long before Ron Reagan decided to speak at the convention. It only made the news because of increased journalistic interest.

[NMDemDist2]

5. i hope they hurry, my FiL is showing signs and it runs in the family

he's my favorite in law too... :cry:

[lottie244]

6. Just in time to thwart any stem cell research debates......

They really are good at what they do.

[InkAddict]

7. Cheerleading for Analogue of "apomorphine" in Phase III

and lookie, lookie what else it does!!! OMGLOL!

http://www.alzforum.org/dis/tre/drc/detail.asp?id=84

Mechanisms: Inhibit Ab fibrillization, binds and reduces soluble Ab
Development Status: investigational
FDA Phase: Phase III
Role in Alzheimer's Disease: Designed to prevent amyloid formation and deposition in the brain, and thus modify the course of AD. Alzhemed™ is expected to act on two levels: firstly to prevent and stop the formation and deposition of amyloid fibrils in the brain as well as to bind to soluble Ab, and secondly to to inhibit the inflammatory response associated with amyloid build-up in AD.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12167652&dopt=Abstract

"Herein, we describe a new class of small molecules that inhibit Abeta aggregation, which is based on the chemical structure of apomorphine."

Info on aphrodisiac apomorphine here: http://remedyfind.com/rem.asp?ID=5860

More history: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.06/born.html

"So much depends upon a lone water molecule. Take the alkaloid C17H19NO3, better known as morphine, a painkiller no hospital can do without. Lop off two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen, as German chemist Augustus Matthiessen first did in 1869, and you're left with apomorphine, which is less effective at dulling pain than a shot of Southern Comfort. Instead, its most obvious effect is to cause rapid and severe vomiting - useful when a toddler drinks Liquid-Plumr, perhaps, but hardly the stuff of pharmaceutical legend.

Like so many compounds concocted during that first golden age of drug research, when chemists mixed and matched molecules with the joyful abandon of Julia Child whipping up figgy pudding, apomorphine was a triumph of chemistry but a failure of product development. Matthiessen's employer, Friedrich Bayer & Co., was primarily a manufacturer of textile dyes and a good three decades away from its landmark discoveries of aspirin and heroin. Unsure how to market the opiate derivative, Bayer peddled apomorphine as a purgative, alongside such fashionable Victorian preparations as castor oil. The drug was later tried as a treatment for brain disorders, schizophrenia, even homosexuality...."