Wildginger, wow, this quote from that 2011 article brings us to were we are now...a few weeks away from Neurotrope's Ph2b trial results
"Researchers led by Daniel Alkon, scientific director and professor at Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute at West Virginia University, were trying to work out how memories are stored on the molecular level when they discovered that PKC plays a critical role in the process. “It’s a very powerful regulator of molecular switches that send signals, especially at the most important junctions in the brain called synaptic junctions—the connections in the brain between neurons,” he says. “We discovered when we form memories we actually induce the formation of new synapses, and that’s regulated by protein kinase C and a whole host of other molecular players in the orchestra that protein kinase C regulates.”
With this understanding, Alkon’s team wondered whether PKC might be relevant to the memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s disease. “It turns out that the central molecular pathways of the pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease all involve protein kinase C,” Alkon explains. This led Alkon to several compounds that activate PKC, of which bryostatin 1 was the most potent.
“We found that PKC activators are remarkably effective in animal models of Alzheimer’s disease in addressing virtually all of the aspects of Alzheimer’s disease,” Alkon says.
These compounds “enhance memory. They correct memory deficits. They restore lost synapses and prevent the loss of synapses. They prevent the death of neurons. They prevent the amyloid plaques. And they prevent the neurofibrillary tangles. All of those are hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease,” Alkon continues. “There’s no one therapy except activators of protein kinase C that does that.” These findings, he argues, suggest a new way of looking at Alzheimer’s disease.
Animal tests with bryostatin 1 have also shown that it restores memory after strokes and traumatic brain injuries. “Essentially what it’s doing is building new connections in the brain and preventing the death of neurons,” Alkon says. “It also has the potential of enhancing memory in normal patients or aging patients or depressed patients. We believe that there is a tremendous potential here.”
Alkon recently received approval to begin a Phase II clinical trial using bryostatin 1 to treat Alzheimer’s. He wants to partner with a private-sector company before moving forward, however."
