News report today - jab may halt Alzheimer's in the future

[noelphobic]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...tml?in_article_id=463811&in_page_id=1770&ct=5

 

[bernie]

This is very interesting, too late for most people who are interested in this forum.

if this is does workAlzheimer's could be a thing of the past in 20 or 30 years time.

Hope the drug if it does work will be priced at a level, where provided it has no side effects it can be given as a matter of routine.

 

[Norman]

And hope the NHS fund it
Norman

 

[DeborahBlythe]

Thanks

Thanks for posting this Brenda. That really would be good news if it comes to fruition. It looks promising.

 

[Kathleen]

Just a thought, but if this does halt the progression of the illness, how will they decide when to give the injection?

I would have hated leaving Mum in her anxious or tearful or wandering and wanting to go home phases indefinitely.

It does seem to be a wonderful drug, but could it be too much of a gamble.

Or have I misunderstood the concept?

Kathleen

 

[bernie]

Just a thought, but if this does halt the progression of the illness, how will they decide when to give the injection?

I would have hated leaving Mum in her anxious or tearful or wandering and wanting to go home phases indefinitely.

It does seem to be a wonderful drug, but could it be too much of a gamble.

Or have I misunderstood the concept?

Kathleen

Depending on costs and side effects if it works, hopefully as soon as somebody reports memory problems the doctor would give a jab to prevent the progress, maybe they would give an anti Alzheimer's jab in the same way that they give flu jabs.

 

[Skye]

I think the idea is to give the vaccine as early as possible on diagnosis, and give preventative vaccination to anyone with a family history on dementia, even vaccinating everyone in late middle age.

It will destroy plaques, but can't restore brain cells that have already died, so it wouldn't be any benefit for later stages.

Then NICE will come along and say it can only be given in moderate stages!

 

[Kathleen]

I think the idea is to give the vaccine as early as possible on diagnosis. It will destroy plaques, but can't restore brain cells that have already died,

By the time Mum was diagnosed, she was distressed as she couldn't think straight and felt her head was "full of cotton wool" she was also suffering frequent anxiety attacks.

Let's hope the diagnosing process speeds up a good deal in the next couple of years.

Kathleen

 

[jc141265]

I think you would also find that the condition of the patient would be improved as the brain does not die off immediately once the plaques hit it...using such a vaccine would clear plaques that are causing problems therefore clearing the confusion and cotton wool.

Dad has been functioning on just 1/3 of his brain for about 2 yrs now (bsaed on last scan taken). I would also suggest that such a vaccine if it really worked could be given in quite late stages and then the person could enter rehabiliation programs to learn to use their brain again...just like people who have suffered a stroke or other accidents to the brain.

Afterall apparently we only utilise a tiny portion of our brains..

If this vaccine works its a dream come true

 

[Skye]

If this vaccine works its a dream come true

It certainly is, Nat. I certainly had no idea that research was moving in that direction.

I would also suggest that such a vaccine if it really worked could be given in quite late stages and then the person could enter rehabiliation programs to learn to use their brain again.

What would happen, though, if one specific part of the brain is destroyed? For example, John's language centre is almost completely gone, though other areas still function reasonably well.

 

[jenniferpa]

I think the concept of "learning to reuse the brain" is a great one, but speaking as someone who's mother is as she is because of strokes, I very much doubt that that the level of intervention that is needed for this retraining will be forthcoming. JMHO.