Anavex Life Sciences Corp (AVXL)

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Alzheimer’s Inflammation Is Downstream; Anavex Is Upstream

We think this is the end of the road for the use of NSAIDs for treatment or prevention of Alzheimer’s disease, and it suggests a need for caution about using other anti-inflammatory drugs for this purpose,....

Nice thought, until now so widely held, that Alzheimer’s results rather solely from inflammation. If so, turn down the inflammation and Alzheimer’s symptoms should abate. But no research with a variety of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) has shown such an outcome. How come?

No doubt, inflammation is a factor in Alzheimer’s disease. But it occurs, as it were, in downstream, at-the-end disease stages. The inflammation of Alzheimer’s is more of a consequence of the disease than a cause. Stopping it (not yet accomplished) does not suppress the actual, root causes of the disease.

Of course, that’s where Anavex 2-73 succeeds. Yes, it apparently has some anti-inflammatory effects. Well and good; but not as an effective treatment or prophylactic for Alzheimer’s. Instead, it restores or supports proper protein folding during gene expression, when the information in genes is expressed as specific proteins, reaction-controlling enzymes. With those properly synthesized, facilitated by sigma-1 receptor agonists, a cell functions normally. Untoward downstream genetic or biochemical outcomes don’t occur.