Side Effect Of Alzheimer's Drugs Is Unlikely

( blood testing may not be the best way to monitor amyloid beta )

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The first trial of a new model for testing Alzheimer's treatments has reassured researchers that a promising class of drugs does not exacerbate the disease if treatment is interrupted. Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Merck & Co. Inc studied the effects of a class of drugs known as gamma secretase inhibitors. Researchers had worried that these drugs might cause a build-up of proteins linked to Alzheimer's disease and that this build-up could be unleashed in a surge when patients went off the medications. But the new study suggests that they do not. "This is important because it eases some concerns that have been raised about this potentially useful class of medications," says senior author Randall Bateman, MD, a Washington University neurologist who treats patients at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. The findings appeared recently in The Journal of Neuroscience.
Gamma secretase inhibitors block proteins involved in the creation of amyloid beta, the main ingredient of Alzheimer's plaques. Patients cannot continuously take these drugs because nonstop inhibition of the gamma secretase enzyme has harmful side effects. One study had revealed that when physicians temporarily halted used of the inhibitors in humans, amyloid beta levels in the blood surged. An animal study suggested cessation of treatment also led to an amyloid beta increase in the brain. Researchers have been watching for similar effects in current human clinical trials of gamma secretase inhibitors. Read more:  redorbit.com

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In delaying the onset and progression of AD

A pilot study was conducted on 21 residents with moderate-to-late-stage Alzheimer's at two Massachusetts nursing homes. Participating residents drank two to four glasses of apple juicy a day for one month. While they demonstrated no change in the Dementia Rating Scale, caregivers reported an approximate 27% improvement in behavioral and psychotic symptoms associated with dementia. The largest changes occurred in anxiety, agitation and delusion. Read more: mcknights.com

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