Alzheimer Video News

World Alzheimer’s Day 2008

Special Report

Alternatives To Amyloid Plaque Theory Take Center Stage In 2008

 "As a counterpoint to the continuing growth of the Alzheimer’s epidemic, currently estimated at 30 million worldwide and forecast to quadruple by the year 2050, in 2008 there was significant progress in the quest for more effective Alzheimer treatments."

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This AlzheimerVideoNews.com special report is presented in conjunction with the 2008 World Alzheimer’s Day, which occurs on September 21 of each year.

This special report by AlzheimerVideoNews.com is sponsored by the Institute for Neurological Research, a private medical group, inc., in Los Angeles, which has developed a new approach to Alzheimer’s disease using perispinal etanercept.

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Institute for Neurological Research®, a private medical group, inc.

etanercept   Dimebon®   Rember®   bapineuzumab   

Welcome to AlzheimerVideoNews.com

We are pleased to announce the debut of AlzheimerVideoNews.com, an ongoing critical look at the most important news in Alzheimer research.

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AlzheimerVideoNews.com is sponsored by the Institute for Neurological Research (INR®), a private medical group, inc. in Los Angeles, the developer of a patented new approach to Alzheimer’s disease treatment, perispinal etanercept.

On an ongoing basis AlzheimerVideoNews.com will report and analyze the most important developments in Alzheimer research, while providing a fresh perspective on this news. AlzheimerVideoNews.com is neither supported nor connected with any of the pharmaceutical companies, and produces its reports without influence from the pharmaceutical industry.

"Findings from E.L. Tobinick and co-authors broaden understanding of Alzheimer disease"

Dementia.com

18/09/2008 - Findings from E.L. Tobinick and co-authors broaden understanding of Alzheimer disease

According to recent research published in the journal BMC Neurology, "Recent clinical studies point to rapid and sustained clinical, cognitive, and behavioral improvement in both Alzheimer's disease and ...

Pain & Central Nervous System Week via NewsEdge :   

"This outcome is concordant with recent basic science studies suggesting that TNF-alpha functions in vivo as a gliotransmitter that regulates synaptic function in the brain."

"We hypothesized that perispinal etanercept had the potential to improve verbal function in Alzheimer's disease, so we included several standarized measures of verbal ability to evaluate language skills in a clinical trial of perispinal etanercept for Alzheimer's disease. This was a prospective, single-center, open-label, pilot study, in which 12 patients with mild-to-severe Alzheimer's disease were administered etanercept, 25 - 50 mg, weekly by perispinal administration for six months. Two additional case studies are presented.

Find the full article at dementia.com

AstraZeneca, Targacept say results of Alzheimer's drug study are inconclusive

The Associated Press
Wilmington,  Del  Sept 15th, 2008

Drugmaker AstraZeneca Inc. and drug developer Targacept Inc. on Monday announced disappointing results for a midstage trial of a treatment the companies are developing for Alzheimer's disease.

The companies said results for the study of the drug candidate, called AZD3480, were inconclusive, because the differences between AZD3480 and donepezil weren't statistically significant. Donepezil, sold under the brand name Aricept, is already marketed for Alzheimer's treatment.    

The study was also affected by an improvement in brain function among the group of patients receiving a placebo, or dummy pill.

In the trial, 567 patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's were given either AZD3480, donepezil or a placebo for 12 weeks. The patients then were judged by accepted clinical measures of cognitive function.

See full article at: Business Week

Feldman and Maini win 2008 Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research

Professors Marc Feldmann and Sir Ravinder Maini were honored last week at the New York Academy of Sciences for winning the 2008 Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research.

Excerpts from the press release:

The award salutes the most passionate and creative scientists in basic or clinical research, whose scientific achievements have made, or have strong potential to make, a measurable impact on human health. Feldmann and Maini were selected for their role in the discovery of tumor necrosis factor-alpha, or TNF-alpha, as an effective therapeutic target for rheumatoid arthritis and other chronic inflammatory conditions afflicting millions worldwide.

Feldmann and Maini investigated the role of cytokines, protein messenger molecules that drive inflammation, and found that a single cytokine, TNF, was capable of driving the disease process. This led them to seek ways of blocking TNF, and they chose to use a monoclonal antibody previously developed for an unrelated condition. Clinical trials revealed rapid and dramatic improvement of rheumatoid disease activity with anti-TNF therapy, which led to development of several anti-TNF drugs. As TNF is also involved in other chronic inflammatory diseases, the pioneering work of Feldmann and Maini has led to the routine use of anti-TNF therapy for many prevalent and debilitating conditions.

Feldmann said, “We are very pleased with the widespread clinical applicability of our discovery that a messenger molecule, TNF, was an effective target for treatment not only in rheumatoid arthritis but also other chronic inflammatory conditions, such as inflammatory bowel disease, ankylosing spondylitis and psoriasis. This discovery suggested that other cytokine messenger molecules are also good treatment targets and has led to an emerging branch of medicine – anti-cytokine therapy. I believe Dr. Janssen would have been intrigued as we explore the range of diseases treatable by these anti-cytokines.”

“Our discovery of anti-TNF therapy for disabling chronic inflammatory conditions was the result of contributions made by many colleagues and collaborators and only possible because of advances in molecular medicine and biotechnology,” said Maini. “The joy of the fruits of our work is that it made a difference to the lives of so many patients, an outcome that Dr. Janssen especially would have appreciated.”

More about:
Marc Feldman  Ravinder Maini
TNF alpha inhibitor backgrounder
Full Press Release

Leading newspaper in Italy discusses the potential of an anti-TNF approach in Alzheimer's

Corriere della Sera   Milan, Italy

The “Miraculous” Injection That Cures Alzheimer’s Disease
September 6th, 2008
By Franca Porciani

A private clinic in Los Angeles proposes a therapy with a drug used to treat arthritis

A visionary, a business man or someone who has had an eye-opening intuition on Alzheimer’s Disease? The scientific world is perplexed but - it is useless to deny - fascinated by the work of Edward Tobinick, Mr. Unknown until yesterday; today at the center of attention for the results, both sensational and extremely rapid, that he is achieving with a drug with anti-inflammatory properties targeted to treat rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis called Etanercept.

The Usual “Miracle”?

The usual miraculous sounding story, among many over the last twenty years? Perhaps, judging from the business aspect (weekly therapy is offered by Tobinick in his California office at a price that varies between $10,000 and $40,000 per year). There is, however a variation to the theme. A significant one. Dr. Tobinick, as opposed to other “revolutionaries” in the field of medicine has scrupulously published his results.

From the case published in the Journal of Neuroinflamation last January of an eighty year old gentleman with serious memory problems who two hours after the injection of the medicine suddenly remembers everything as before (and even recognizing his wife after many years!) to the case of fifteen patients treated for six months during which the miracle repeated and consolidated itself: recuperating memory and verbal fluency (BMC Neurology in July).

Medical Schools, Journals fight Industry Influence

International Herald Tribune
Medical schools, journals fight industry influence
The Associated Press    September 11, 2008

TRENTON, New Jersey: Just about every segment of the medical community is piling on the pharmaceutical industry these days, accusing drugmakers of deceiving the public, manipulating doctors and putting profits before patients.

Recent articles and editorials in major medical journals blast the industry. Medical schools, teaching hospitals and physician groups are changing rules to limit the influence of pharmaceutical sales reps. And three top editors of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine last month publicly sided against the drug industry in a U.S. Supreme Court case over whether patients harmed by government-approved medicines may still sue in state courts.

As more voices have called for change, new guidelines for how drugmakers and doctors should interact are coming from both industries, and doctors say some abuses of the past have ended. But the industries' dealings remain fraught with potential conflict because the sectors depend on each other so much °X medicine on drugmakers' research dollars and drugmakers on the credibility researchers give them.

"The influence that the pharmaceutical companies, the for-profits, are having on every aspect of medicine ... is so blatant now you'd have to be deaf, blind and dumb not to see it," said Journal of the American Medical Association editor Dr. Catherine DeAngelis, a longtime industry critic. "We have just allowed them to take over, and it's our fault, the whole medical community."

In an April editorial in her journal, DeAngelis noted two studies indicated past reports about Merck & Co.'s withdrawn pain reliever Vioxx frequently were penned by ghostwriters and that reports on some Vioxx studies minimized the risk of death. Merck has denied the charges.

"Manipulation of studies and publications by the pharmaceutical and medical device industries is either increasing or there has been more exposure of these practices," she wrote.

She said industry influence includes swaying doctors and medical students to their brands with gifts, funding research at top teaching hospitals but keeping control of the studies and results, failing to disclose study authors' conflicts of interest, even taking over the continuing medical education system for doctors by running courses on new treatments. Critics say such courses are taught by company-paid speakers who often promote expensive new drugs over older, cheaper ones.

"We should all get together and say, 'Enough!'" DeAngelis said.