Is There a Cure for Alzheimer's Disease?

Aberdeen Researcher Claude Wischik: Rember Slows Memory Loss

Aug 5, 2008

Alzheimer's Disease patients taking a new drug, Rember, experienced significant slowing of the disease's effects.

Millions of people worldwide suffer from dementia, the general condition of declining mental capability. Worst of all is Alzheimer's Disease, characterized by extreme loss of memory, behavior changes, and inappropriate social conduct. It is thought that 26 million people suffer from Alzheimer's Disease worldwide, and this number could climb to over 100 million by the middle of this century.

The disease is named after Alois Alzheimer who initially described the tangles of a brain condition we now call Alzheimer's Disease in the early 1900s. It is thought that the tau protein tangles and accumulates inside the brain's neurons, eventually impairing the neuron's function. The tangles first destroy the nerve cells linked to memory and then destroy neurons in other parts of the brain as the disease progresses.

Rember, a Promising Solution

A recent clinical study of a new drug, Rember, offers the promise of a way to slow or halt Alzheimer's Disease. The study results were recently presented at the International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease in Chicago by professor Claude Wischik.

Researcher Claude Wischik

Wischik's team, in partnership with a company named TauRx, formed to commercialize the product, developed and recently concluded a one year test of Rember. Rember was tested on over 300 Alzheimer's patients in Britain and Singapore. The study patients were divided into four groups, with three groups getting Rember in different dosages and the fourth group receiving a placebo.

The results indicate the brain-cell processes resulting in Alzheimer's Disease could be controlled and possibly halted. Patients in the group taking 60 mg of Rember daily showed over 80 percent less memory decline than those taking the placebo. If subsequent clinical trials confirm these results this would make Rember twice as effective as Aricept, the only drug currently recommended for Alzheimer's treatment.

A July 30, 2008 article on The Times Online quotes Professor Wischik, "We have demonstrated for the first time that it may be possible to arrest progression of the disease by targeting the tangles which are highly correlated with the disease."

With continuing success in subsequent clinical trials, TauRx suggests the drug could be available by 2012.

Mind Exercises May Help

Other research studies show that mental exercises can reduce memory loss and the decline in mental acuity often associated with dementia and Alzheimer's. Experts suggest the following preventative steps:

The copyright of the article Is There a Cure for Alzheimer's Disease? in Personal Development is owned by Jerry Lopper. Permission to republish Is There a Cure for Alzheimer's Disease? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.