[ExI] Jaw-dropping CWRU Alzheimer's breakthrough?

[BillK]

On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 5:43 PM, spike wrote:
> Expensive?  Compared to what?  For those families facing the prospect, the
> heartbreaking emotional drain and staggering expense of putting a family
> member in Alzheimers care, we will grasp wildly at any straw, a bit like
> what I am doing right now.  Eugen, in the US, the cost of Alzheimers care is
> often largely carried by the family and it is typically 5000 Euro/month, and
> sometimes more.  This can go on for years.
>
> This round of bexarotene is on me.
>


HuffPo article has a bit more info.
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/09/bexarotene-alzheimers-mice-skin-cancer-drug_n_1266430.html>

Landreth and Cramer have formed a company called ReXceptor
Therapeutics that intends to begin a preliminary trial in humans in
the next few months to determine whether the drug crosses the
blood-brain barrier and clears amyloid, as it does in mice. If those
processes occur, clinical trials on the drug's effectiveness in humans
could begin even this year, and they would probably last from 18
months to three years. The drug loses patent protection for cancer
this year, but Case Western has filed for patents for its use in
Alzheimer's.

Despite their optimism, scientists say it's important not to overplay
the progress. After all, drugs that work in mice do not necessarily
help humans. Moreover, the genetically engineered version of mice used
in this study do not recapitulate every aspect of the human disease.
For instance, the mice do not experience the effects of dying neurons
(despite having impaired cognition), and they do not go on to develop
a hallmark characteristic of a later disease stage in humans--namely,
the accretion of so-called tau proteins that seem to abet the killing
of nerve cells. "Transgenic mouse experiments have not reliably
predicted therapeutic effects in humans," Aisen says, "so caution is
essential until human studies confirm target engagement," that is, the
removal of amyloid plaques.

As ReXceptor moves forward with its clinical trial plans, it will
inevitably have to contend with the demands of the families of
Alzheimer's patients. Landreth emphasizes that calling your physician
after reading an article like this one is a bad idea. "Don't try this
at home," he cautions, "because we don't know we what dose to give, we
don't know how frequently to give it, and there are a few nuances to
its administration. So one shouldn't be prescribing it off-label." It
is also unclear whether a drug like bexarotene would work at a middle
or advanced stage of the disease, when neurodegenerative processes
have already set in.

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BillK