Leukemia medication may keep dementia brain plaques from developing
Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comCancer drug inspires new Alzheimer's approach
Seeded on Wed Sep 1, 2010 2:07 PM EDT (msnbc.com)
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This is wonderful news---I am hoping the drug is made AFFORDABLE as opposed to many other so called miracle drugs, where the only miracle is affordability.
It is useless and cruel to give hope only to have those hopes dashed by ridiculously high drug prices. I notice drug prices in the US are triple and quadruple those in most other countries.
The reasons that drug prices have increased are many. Some newer drugs are simply more complex and harder to manufacture than older drugs. They are the difference between building a bicycle and building a car. Other increases stem from tighter regulatory practices and requirements. You cannot have safe drugs cheaply. Say what you want about corporations and greed, but without the coming together of large numbers of skilled workers and investors (a corporation), products like these cannot be produced.
Besides all of this, this drug won't cure Alzheimer's. It is no miracle. Gamma secretase has been targeted before by other drugs in other clinical trials. Given what we knew a few years ago about this disease it seems like a promising target, however stopping this enzyme does nothing to slow or reverse the damage of Alzheimer's. The disease mechanism is simply not fully understood, although there are many promising new leads. The makers of this drug study leukemia and are simply a few years behind in their Alzheimer's knowledge. It sucks to burst the bubble, but there it is.
We at the Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation are very proud to have funded this tremendous new finding of Dr. Paul Greengard. For the past 15 years, we have been proud to support the good work of Dr. Greengard and his internationally renowned team of scientists at The Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research. We would like to specifically congratulate Drs. He and Greengard for discovering this important protein. Their latest research is a potential paradigm shift in how scientists and doctors around the world will attack Alzheimer’s.
Kent L. Karosen
President and CEO Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation
www.alzinfo.org
I am participating in the Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk this Saturday.
Please sponsor me and help find a treatment/cure:
http://memorywalk2010.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=335298&lis=1&kntae335298=C29A4CD9187744C78197F186C56FBC6B&supId=303686704
Thanks!
Rebecca