Alzheimer

Name: Helen                                                                                          Current Events Posting Number: 1
Topic: Health/Science
Title of Article: Skin cancer drug reverses Alzheimer's in mice
Author:  Elizabeth Cohen, Senior Medical Correspondent 
Publication Name:CNN                                                                     Date of Publication: February 9, 2012
Length of Article: 1 page, 566 words

23 Researchers from different research institutions, working at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland Ohio, published a interesting finding regarding Alzheimer's disease in the journal Science last Thursday. Their finding is of great relevance for the understanding of Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's disease is associated with impaired clearance of β-amyloid from the brain, a process normally facilitated by apolipoprotein E (ApoE). Destructive plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer's patients have been rapidly cleared by these researchers testing a cancer drug on mice. The researches treated special  mice, which were bred to have Alzheimer disease, with bexarotene and found that this treatment efficiently removed the beta-amyloid from there brains and apparently cured them. Bexarotene is a drug already used to treat a type of skin cancer called cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. After one dose in young mice, the levels of beta-amyloid in the brain were "rapidly lowered" within six hours and a 25% reduction was sustained for 70 hours. In older mice with established amyloid plaques, seven days of treatment halved the number of plaques in the brain. The study said there were improvements in brain function after treatment, in nest building, maze performance and remembering electrical shocks. While this is indeed an interesting and great finding giving us some hope, it is by no ways clear that it will also work in humans. Many treatments that might work for animals, do not work in Humans. 
           This new research finding indicates a better understanding of Alzheimer's disease and gives a path for a possible development of a drug against it. There are other drugs in development which aim to clear the beta-amyloid plaque from the brains of Alzheimer's patients. However, many more years of research and testing will be required before this or a similar drug can become efficient for humans.