[ExI] Alzheimer's vaccine trial a success

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of Brian Manning Delaney
Subject: Re: [ExI] Alzheimer's vaccine trial a success

El 2012-06-08 08:16, BillK escribió:
>>... [NEWS 6 June] A study led by Karolinska Institutet reports for the 
> first time the positive effects of an active vaccine against 
> Alzheimer's disease. The new vaccine, CAD106, can prove a breakthrough 
> in the search for a cure for this seriously debilitating dementia 
> disease. The study is published in the distinguished scientific 
> journal Lancet Neurology.
> <http://ki.se/ki/jsp/polopoly.jsp?l=en&d=130&a=145109&newsdep=130>

>...Thanks for the very useful news, and thanks again to Spike, for efforts in getting the straight dope on bexarotene, all of which is now even more important to me personally, since yet another person I know was just diagnosed with (very early stage) Alzheimer's...  --Brian

I have been scanning for online reports of treatments of AD patients with bexarotene.  There have been sporadic reports of modest success, but not one that is convincing or even compelling.  Just as we speculated back in February when Dr. Landreth's report came out, there have been people experimenting with the stuff, but even I was shocked at the levels to which they took it.  I was pondering dosages and how to enhance the amount of the stuff that crosses the BB barrier.  If these informal reports have any credibility (they need to be anonymous for understandable legal reasons) there are people who are fearlessly using enormous doses of the stuff, way higher than what would be used in a typical melanoma patient.  

Bexarotene is a known thyroid suppressant.  Dr. Landreth's worst nightmare is apparently playing out: desperate families have bought bexarotene by the case from England and took a wild shot in the dark for how much to give grandma, with the assumption that what the hell, too little is just as fatal as too much.  But reliable reports of results are hard to come by.  One report that a patient was using twice the usual melanoma dose said they though the patient may have improved some.  But that was two months ago, and that person hasn't posted back.  They were deluged with inquiries but never answered any of them as far as I can tell, or if so, nothing ever came up in Google searches.

I have concluded sadly that bexarotene isn't the miracle we were all hoping for, however there are plenty of parallel lines of research which may bear fruit.

What I have learned is that we are quickly developing patient groups, where information is pooled on various diseases.  A person with an orphan disease can find the few hundred others all over the globe with a similar  condition, to share information, treatment ideas, results, and if nothing else, just good old fashioned human sympathy.  For patients to cry together online is better I suppose than to cry alone.  For many of these conditions we are just now reaching critical mass.  As you might expect, Alzheimer's has a massive online support group, which I urge you to use if applicable.

Never lose hope: this vaccine might be the way.  Good luck to us.

spike