5 ms·
I do not believe that this will be at all useful. Their underlying assumption is shown in, "Previous research has shown that the progression of Alzheimer’s dis
by btilly 6y ago
I do not believe that this will be at all useful.
Their underlying assumption is shown in, "Previous research has shown that the progression of Alzheimer’s disease is driven by a vicious cycle of the protein amyloid β (Aβ) inducing hyperactivity at the neuron level."
This is a widespread belief and has been the main target of attempted treatments for decades. Every one of which has failed. And therefore I predict that a drug trial based on this research will likewise fail.
So if that fails, what should we do instead?
See https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05719-4 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05719-4 for an overview of why it is reasonable that the root cause is infections and amyloid β is a symptom of our brains attempts to fight it off. Which explains why decades of drug trials aimed at disrupting the creation of amyloid β (which this does) have failed dismally.
As https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/could-alzheimers-be-a-reaction-to-infection/ https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/could-alzh... points out, treating people with the anti-herpes drug acyclovir was found to reduce the odds of getting Alzheimer's by 80%. Contrast this with the inability over many drug trials of any drugs aimed at amyloid β to demonstrate any effect on Alzheimer's at all.
As the old quote goes, "science progresses one funeral at a time". We're going to see ongoing research for a long time based on the idea that amyloid β is the cause of Alzheimer's. In the meantime if you have a family history of Alzheimer's, I would recommend getting a prescription for the only drug that has ever demonstrated any clinical success. Namely acyclovir. And start it before permanent damage has been done to your brain.
- ncmncm 6y agoOK, except: get valacyclovir, instead. Or both. As I understand it, acyclovir is cleared from your system much more quickly than valacyclovir. Anyway, I find (sample N=1) that acyclovir utterly fails to have any effect at all on my herpes outbreaks, but the other suppresses them. YMMV.
- marton78 6y agoHave you tried penciclovir? Works like a charm for me, albeit topically, I don't know if it's available for systemic treatment.