5 ms·

https://www.alz.org/documents_custom/historic-funding-2017.pdf https://www.alz.org/documents_custom/historic-funding-2017.p... I couldn't believe the numbers w

https://www.alz.org/documents_custom/historic-funding-2017.pdf https://www.alz.org/documents_custom/historic-funding-2017.p... I couldn't believe the numbers when I read them. I fully expected that we were doing more. Breast cancer is over funded, and Viagra is about $70/pill but this debilitating disease is forgotten about until individuals are themselves forgetting. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

hprotagonist 9y ago
it is not for want of trying. Eli Lily bet the farm and lost, and they aren’t alone. At this point, we’re beginning to think previously unthinkable thoughts like “what if the hypothesis the last 20 years of research was based on (beta amyloid plaques)is just totally wrong”. we’ve made drugs that reduce plaques. they don’t ameliorate the disease.
- caycep 9y ago
  And even if said amyloid hypothesis was correct; I suspect by the time you see plaques, a lot of neurons have already died, i.e. horses have left the barn.
- malnourish 9y ago
  NPR recently (in the past few months) ran an interview where the guest compared Alzheimer's to a "Type III Diabetes" of sorts
- slfnflctd 9y ago
  I just read this yesterday: https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2018/04/11/Researchers-find-genetic-cause-for-Alzheimers-possible-method-to-reverse-it/4661523454194/ https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2018/04/11/Researchers-find-... I know we all see at least half a dozen of these a year, but nobody can say in advance how they'll turn out (unless it's just obviously badly designed research). This line of inquiry certainly seems to have some promise.
  - hprotagonist 9y ago
    Always worth looking into. To my knowledge, previous studies have produced things like "these 600 genes are regulated in a particular way in patients who were diagnosed with Alzheimers", which is much less persuasive of an argument; the contribution power per gene is quite low in that case. If you can conclusively say "these n<5 genes are exactly the things that make people 50% more likely to develop a disease", you're cooking with gas.
- vibrio 9y ago
  The resources and money that was wasted on some of those studies is tragic, and it was facilitated by an attitude in both industry and academia that the few scientists throwing rocks at the amyloid hypothesis were wing nuts. Tragic, and there is great amount of work to do even as some big Pharma are walking away from this area of research.

hprotagonist 9y ago

it is not for want of trying. Eli Lily bet the farm and lost, and they aren’t alone. At this point, we’re beginning to think previously unthinkable thoughts like “what if the hypothesis the last 20 years of research was based on (beta amyloid plaques)is just totally wrong”. we’ve made drugs that reduce plaques. they don’t ameliorate the disease.

caycep 9y ago
And even if said amyloid hypothesis was correct; I suspect by the time you see plaques, a lot of neurons have already died, i.e. horses have left the barn.
malnourish 9y ago
NPR recently (in the past few months) ran an interview where the guest compared Alzheimer's to a "Type III Diabetes" of sorts
slfnflctd 9y ago
I just read this yesterday: https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2018/04/11/Researchers-find-genetic-cause-for-Alzheimers-possible-method-to-reverse-it/4661523454194/ https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2018/04/11/Researchers-find-... I know we all see at least half a dozen of these a year, but nobody can say in advance how they'll turn out (unless it's just obviously badly designed research). This line of inquiry certainly seems to have some promise.
- hprotagonist 9y ago
  Always worth looking into. To my knowledge, previous studies have produced things like "these 600 genes are regulated in a particular way in patients who were diagnosed with Alzheimers", which is much less persuasive of an argument; the contribution power per gene is quite low in that case. If you can conclusively say "these n<5 genes are exactly the things that make people 50% more likely to develop a disease", you're cooking with gas.
vibrio 9y ago
The resources and money that was wasted on some of those studies is tragic, and it was facilitated by an attitude in both industry and academia that the few scientists throwing rocks at the amyloid hypothesis were wing nuts. Tragic, and there is great amount of work to do even as some big Pharma are walking away from this area of research.