Biotech Values

[winchem21]

"Another view of Alzheimers treatment and other AD info

Dew, thanks for the post; another view I recently found highlighted the need to lengthen current AD treatments:

In the US, the average total duration of treatment with a ChE inhibitor [the standard treatment for AD]is less than 200 days,[1] which is of concern given the fact that the disease course of AD lasts for approximately 7-10 years.[2]"
[From "Strategies for Continued Successful Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease: Switching Cholinesterase Inhibitors," Curr Med Res Opin 19(8):707-714, 2003]

From another recent source,
"If we can delay the onset of AD by five years, we can cut the rate of incidence in half."

This link has good background info on AD:
http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2001/sep2001_report_alzheimers_01.html

Here are two links that provide extensive recent data on various treatments. Rivastigmine has been shown to inhibit both AChe and Butylcholinesterase (BChe); the latter increases during AD progression and this is the only AChe inhibitor that works on both. The data show that rivastigmine delays AD symptoms by 12-18 months.
http://www.medscape.com/viewprogram/2914_pnt
http://www.medscape.com/viewprogram/2915_pnt

AD occurrence is associated with amyloid plaque formation; the jury still appears to be out on whether the protein plaques are causes or effects. To date there has been limited success with beta and game secretase inhibitors to slice Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP) to prevent plaque formation. Here is a excellent message link with an good description of active work in this area

http://www.siliconinvestor.com/stocktalk/msg.gsp?msgid=19666350

wc21