New Alzheimer's Treatment Clears Plaques from Brains of Mice Within Hours

41 pointsposted 3 hours ago
by amichail
(sciencealert.com)

15 Comments

jader201

2 hours ago

> Within hours of the first injection, the animal brains showed a nearly 45 percent reduction in clumps of amyloid-beta plaques, a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease.

> The mice had previously shown signs of cognitive decline, but after all three doses, the animals performed on par with their healthy peers in spatial learning and memory tasks. The benefits lasted at least six months.

1. This is great news… for mice with Alzheimer’s that don’t mind treatments every 6 months.

2. It’s crazy to think about something like this actually curing Alzheimer’s in humans, even if for just 6 months. Even more so if repeated doses have the same effects.

3. As with all of these studies, mice != humans, but it’s nice to have hope.

Side note: the temporary part of #2 makes me think about The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey [1]. It’s hard to fathom having a relative “come back” like that for a short time. Or even permanently.

[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13820498

nharada

an hour ago

If this was effective on humans I think most people would accept having treatments 2x a year

copperx

an hour ago

One must live a very privileged life to mind a 2x a year inconvenience in exchange for a working brain.

I wouldn't mind 10x a day injections if it keeps Alzheimer's at bay. Actually, I wouldn't mind a continuous IV drip.

bitmasher9

43 minutes ago

I usually consider dialysis to be the point where treatments start to become very limiting. Twice a week, most people feel tied to their dialysis clinic and cannot go far from it.

jader201

27 minutes ago

Of course, but that’s assuming:

1. There aren’t serious side effects that make it more of a tradeoff

2. The price isn’t on the order of 6-7 figures (or possibly less for some)

whycome

an hour ago

I don’t know why this isn’t a case where human subjects for the tests aren’t allowed.

jryb

an hour ago

You’re not seeing all the other candidate treatments that made things worse. If it just gives everyone a heart attack immediately the question would be, why didn’t you try this out on mice first?

jpollock

an hour ago

If the disease is severe enough to justify an untested treatment with unknown toxicity they aren't aware enough to grant consent.

harry8

32 minutes ago

True.

But they could give consent in advance.

If this horrific disease progresses to the point where ... I give my consent for ... Subject to final approval from family member/doctor/whatever.

arijun

19 minutes ago

Isn't that what power of attorney already is?

qwertytyyuu

an hour ago

This test shows effectiveness, they also need to go through trials to test for safety and unintended side effects

wahnfrieden

an hour ago

Human can’t consent in this case but they can feel immense pain and suffering still in ways that failed experimentation could invoke. Which may be worse than further decay and eventual death.

PaulKeeble

an hour ago

So far all the prior Amyloid clearing drugs did not cause recovery in people despite doing so in mice. Its meant a lot of researchers now aren't convinced that the Beta Amyloid is the problem in Alzheimer's. I hope this one ends up differently, its definitely a lot faster and more effective than the others at clearing.

tombert

42 minutes ago

Well that's depressing. My biggest fear, and this isn't a bad setup for a joke, is early-onset Alzheimers. I don't think I'm especially high-risk for it, but I did have a single great-grandfather who got it so technically it does run in my family. It seems so horrible, having your brain sort of deteriorate and

Ideally I never get it, but if I do get I hope it's in like my late 90's, or even better by the time I get it they already have a cure, though the fact this might not work for humans makes me a little sad.

ineedaj0b

24 minutes ago

there’s some interesting treatment in china that seems promising. something about unclogging drains in the neck. friend told me it looked ‘possible’.

the whole western field is 15-20 years behind because some researcher lied about plaque data and everyone spent all their time chasing the lead. I think you’ll see useful therapies in 15-20 years from the west, maybe sooner if all the some ai hype pans out.

or the Chinese thing turns out to work! can’t tell myself. there’s probably an American who will try it at some point and publish a case study. Very tough to judge Chinese papers..

here’s an overview: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12121576/