Two of my four grandparents experienced varying degrees of dementia or Alzheimer's disease late in their lives. As I age, of course everytime I lose a word or forget a name or can't find something I have misplaced, I worry that dementia will afflict me, too.
So I read this item (BBC News) with considerable interest.
Destructive plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer's patients have been rapidly cleared by researchers testing a cancer drug on mice.
The US study, published in the journal Science, reported the plaques were broken down at "unprecedented" speed.
Tests also showed an improvement in some brain function.
Specialists said the results were promising, but warned that successful drugs in mice often failed to work in people.
...
After one dose in young mice, the levels of beta-amyloid in the brain were "rapidly lowered" within six hours and a 25% reduction was sustained for 70 hours.
In older mice with established amyloid plaques, seven days of treatment halved the number of plaques in the brain.
The study said there were improvements in brain function after treatment, in nest building, maze performance and remembering electrical shocks.
Researchers Paige Cramer said: "This is an unprecedented finding. Previously, the best existing treatment for Alzheimer's disease in mice required several months to reduce plaque in the brain."
...
"We need to be clear, the drug works quite well in mouse models of the disease. Our next objective is to ascertain if it acts similarly in humans," he said.
His group is preparing to start trials in a small group of people to see if there is a similar effect in humans.
At this point, the limited human trials will be with victims of Alzheimer's disease. My guess is that it will be a long, long time before researchers are able to test using this or a related drug as a preventive measure.
However, it should be possible, using retrospective studies, to examine patients who used the drug as cancer patients to see whether the incidence of Alzheimer's disease has been lower for them than for a comparable group. I hope this study is done soon and done carefully.