The 2011 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures report from the Alzheimer’s Association projects that Alabama will have 110,000 people with Alzheimer’s Disease. That is about two percent of Alabama’s population in 2012.
The same report states that 1517 Alabamians died of Alzheimer's in 2009 and that 51,482 Alabamians are residents of a nursing home due to some form of cognitive impairment. The unpaid cost of Alzheimer's care giving by family members is almost $400 million.
Bexarotene is a cancer drug that has shown the most substantial removal of the known symptoms of Alzheimer's and their physical sources thereby restoring cognition levels more than any previous trial drug or therapy in a mouse (or human) model.
Neuroscientists at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine reported their findings on February 9, 2012, in the journalScience.
Amyloid beta occurs naturally in the brain. The inability of the body to rid itself of amyloid beta and the build up of that material in the brain is the most accepted cause of Alzheimer’s disease. The main cholesterol carrier in the brain, Apolipoprotein E (ApoE), clears amyoid beta from the brain.
Bexarotene increases the levels of ApoE that get to the brain so the amyloid beta cells and formations are removed.
The researchers found that memory restoration at high levels occurred within seventy-two hours of the administration of the first does of bexarotene. Amyloid plaques were reduced to an average level of 75% in seventy-two hours. The effect lasted as long as three days with one dosage of bexarotene.
The researchers also found that a genetic variation in the ApoE gene may be the cause of Alzheimer’s disease. One subset of ApoE designated ApoE4 is highly correlated with the development of Alzheimer’s Disease. Even a small structural difference in a gene can be of great significance in function.
Human trials using the same criteria are planned.
A video discussing this research can be seen here.
Gary Landreth, PhD, professor of neurosciences at Case Western led the research. Paige Cramer, PhD candidate at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, was first author of the study. Co-authors include John R. Cirrito, Jessica L. Restivo, Whitney D. Goebel, Washington University School of Medicine; C.Y. Daniel Lee, Colleen Karlo, Adriana E. Zinn, Brad T. Casali, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine; Donald A. Wilson, New York University School of Medicine, and Michael J. James, Kurt R. Brunden, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. The research was reviewed at the Eureka Alert web site on Feruary 9, 2012.
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