Alzheimer's: a new smart pill?

(inhibits brain receptors that stimulate learning and memory)

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University of Maryland scientists have linked a brain compound called kynurenic acid to cognition, potentially opening the door to development of a drug that could aid learning in healthy people — and in those with disorders such as Alzheimer's disease."Workers might want to take a pill so they can work harder, and college students would be interested because they already are taking amphetamine-type pills so they will be sharper," said Robert Schwarcz, professor of psychiatry, pediatrics and pharmacology and experimental therapeutics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. His research has focused on healthy people, but he says, "What happens with diseases would be a major add-on."

There are many other research projects around the country into brain function. They are examining a wide variety of factors — vitamin supplements, estrogen, herbs, red wine — as well as ways to bolster blood circulation and chemicals that initiate actions in the brain. Several drugs are already being used to improve cognition in Alzheimer's patients, but they aren't effective for every patient.

The odds are long for any new drug treatment gaining government approval for use in humans, but Schwarcz believes that the kynurenic acid discovery could be the breakthrough needed by pharmaceutical companies to produce a commercial product. No human tests have been performed based on the findings, but he believes that at least four major companies have picked up on his research and have begun active drug development programs. Other scientists think the research shows promise in a sorely needed area. "There may be no more important target than how to address impaired cognition in humans," said Dr. William T. Carpenter, director of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. "That part is a biggie." Schwarcz and other scientists have been studying the link for more than a decade and can now show that mice genetically engineered to produce 70 percent less kynurenic acid had markedly improved cognition. They were better able to explore and recognize objects, remember unpleasant experiences and navigate a maze.

In humans, the acid is produced after consuming food containing tryptophan, such as turkey. Tryptophan is an amino acid essential to the human diet because it helps the body produce serotonin, which promotes healthy sleep and stable mood. Conversely, abnormally high levels of kynurenic acid are found in people with brain disorders such as Alzheimer's and Huntington's, which may contribute to cognitive problems. Further, more acid is produced with age, possibly leading to dementia in some or creating those "senior moments" when people can't recall a memory or fact. More: baltimoresun.com

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Study confirms rooibos antioxidant potential

Italian researchers have found that rooibos tea is able to boost plasma antioxidant defences in humans.  Read more: nutraingredients.com

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Can you prevent Alzheimer's?

(a large amount of promising research is under way)

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Before you spend your money on an exotic herb or a pricey electronic brain game to preserve your mind, consider this: No one has found a sure-fire way to prevent Alzheimer's disease or mild cognitive decline. There are “so many, many products that people are consuming in the name of prevention of Alzheimer's disease and prevention of mild cognitive decline,” from herbal products like Ginkgo biloba to vitamins, said Dr. Martha L. Daviglus, a professor of preventive medicine and medicine at Northwestern University. However, “for now, we don't see any association between those vitamins and certain kinds of foods or pills that are available in the market and the prevention” of these problems.
That was the gist of a consensus statement released earlier this year by an independent panel assembled for a National Institutes of Health State-of-the-Science Conference. The report has not been universally embraced, especially by those who think lifestyle changes could have value. “I wish that they'd given a more positive message,” said Dr. Greg Jicha, a Lexington neurologist with the Alzheimer's Disease Center at the University of Kentucky's Sanders-Brown Center on Aging.
The 15-member panel, chaired by Daviglus, included experts in such fields as geriatrics, neurology, psychiatry and nutrition, who considered, among other things, the results of a systematic literature review by the Duke Evidence-based Practice Center in North Carolina. The panel did not find enough consistent evidence to recommend the use of pharmaceuticals or dietary supplements to prevent Alzheimer's disease or cognitive decline. Ditto for dietary measures, such as omega-3 fatty acids from fish, or a Mediterranean-style diet; exercise; and being socially or cognitively engaged.
Future research might make a difference, however, and the panel is encouraging it. More: courier-journal.com

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Alcohol may reduce arthritis risk and severity

New research suggests that drinking alcohol can reduce the severity of rheumatoid arthritis - the first time such an effect has been observed in humans.  Read more: nutraingredients.com

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Pfizer gets new patent life for Alzheimer's drug

(to develop valuable therapies for the treatment of the disease)

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With the patent on their Alzheimer's drug Aricept expiring this fall, partners Pfizer Inc. and Eisai Inc. have announced regulatory approval for a higher dose of the medicine that will allow a three-year patent extension for the new formulation. Pfizer's stock price reacted enthusiastically, closing at $15.02 a share, up 44 cents or more than 3 percent. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval came late Friday for the 23 milligram version of Aricept, which clinical studies showed helped Alzheimer's disease patients improve their ability to process information. The new dosage is geared toward patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer's.
New York-based Pfizer said the new Aricept tablets, to be taken once a day, should be available in pharmacies by August, two months before the patent on the 5 mg and 10 mg dosages of the Alzheimer's treatment loses protection in the United States. A generic version of Aricept was approved by the FDA last year. Pfizer did not respond directly to the question of whether the new formulation would be more expensive than the older version of Aricept.
"Because insurance plans and pharmacy prices differ, the cost to the patient may vary depending on coverage or pharmacy," company spokesman MacKay Jimeson said in an e-mail response to questions. "Patients and caregivers should consult their health care plan."
About 3.6 million Americans over 65 have moderate-to-severe Alzheimer's, Pfizer said in a news release that quoted the Alzheimer's Association. The number with more advanced Alzheimer's is expected to triple in the next four decades, the company said. By 2050, Pfizer said, about 13.5 million Americans are expected to have Alzheimer's, a disease whose probability of striking doubles every five years for those over 65 years old. More: theday.com

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Pollen spores could enhance omega-3 bioavailability

Hollowed-out pollen spores could be used to microencapsulate EPA omega-3 and make it more bioavailable, new research from the University of Hull suggests. Read more: nutraingredients.com

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Lysosomal dysfunction linked to Alzheimer's

(a link between the lysosomal system and tau fragmentation)

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Your lysosomes are recycling units, but their function slowly fails with age - meaning your cells degrade as they fill with waste and junk. More rapid and selective lysosomal failure in brain cells is implicated in a variety of neurodegenerative conditions. Here, researchers dig more deeply: "Neurodegenerative disorders, like Alzheimer's disease, are a devastating group of conditions that exact a heavy toll on patients and their families. ... Research over the past two decades has strongly suggested that a fundamental problem in affected nerve cells relates to accumulation of cellular 'garbage,' or proteins and other material that is too old to function properly. Thus, understanding how the neuron handles these outdated molecules is of great significance. Here we find that upregulation of one such cellular degrading pathway, the lysosome, can have significant deleterious effects to the neuron. We specifically show that expanding the lysosomal compartment can markedly increase production of a very toxic form of tau, a protein strongly implicated in neuronal dysfunction and death in Alzheimer's disease and related disorders. Our findings have important implications for the development of neurodegenerative disease therapies that seek to manipulate the lysosome and the proteins within the lysosome." Therapies that can repair failing lysosomes may have general application to rejuvenation medicine - so the more groups working on that, the better. More: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Curcumin complex could provide arthritis benefits

A low dose of a curcumin complex has been found to help relive pain and increase mobility in patients with osteoarthritis, according to a new study from Indena.  Read more: nutraingredients.com

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Alzheimer’s: blood signature for the disease

(a different methodology had overlapping results)

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Texas scientists are on the verge of developing a blood test to identify patients with Alzheimer’s disease, a potential major breakthrough in the still difficult to diagnose ailment. The test, which measures a mix of more than 100 blood proteins, accurately classified those participants who had the disease and those who didn’t 95 percent of the time. Blood samples were taken from about 600 people, split between those with and without the disease.  The study was the product of the Texas Alzheimer’s Research Consortium, a Legislature-created collaboration comprising Baylor, Texas Tech, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio and the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth. In addition, a University of North Carolina researcher and consultant to the Texas consortium presented data that showed that changes in genes reflected the distinguishing biomarkers. The mix of proteins and complementary genetic data contrast with previous failed blood tests, which usually relied only on one protein. More: mysanantonio.com

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Nanotechnology in food

Let's get talking about nanotech. The science of the very small has filled the food industry with big ideas – but industry is torn on how to present nanotechnology to consumers, stalling product development. Read more: nutraingredients.com

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Western diet and Alzheimer's disease

(lifestyle factors, especially nutrition)

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Alzheimer Disease, characterised by a global impairment of cognitive functions, is more and more common in Western societies, both because of longer life expectancy and, probably, because of increasing incidence. Several hints suggest that this degenerative disease is linked to western diet, characterised by excessive dietary intake of sugar, refined carbohydrates (with high glycaemic index), and animal product (with high content of saturated fats), and decreased intake of unrefined seeds--cereals, legumes, and oleaginous seeds--and other vegetables (with high content of fibres, vitamins, polyphenols and other antioxidant substances, phytoestrogens) and, in several populations, of sea food (rich in n-3 fatty acids). It has been hypothesised, in fact, that AD, may be promoted by insulin resistance, decreased endothelial production of nitric oxide, free radical excess, inflammatory metabolites, homocysteine, and oestrogen deficiency. AD, therefore, could theoretically be prevented (or delayed) by relatively simple dietary measures aimed at increasing insulin sensitivity (trough reduction of refined sugars and saturated fats from meat and dairy products), the ratio between n-3 and n-6 fatty acids (e.g. from fish and respectively seed oils), antioxidant vitamins, folic acid, vitamin B6, phytoestrogens (vegetables, whole cereals, and legumes, including soy products), vitamin B12 (bivalve molluscs, liver), and Cr, K, Mg, and Si salts. This comprehensive improvement of diet would fit with all the mechanistic hypotheses cited above. Several studies, on the contrary, are presently exploring monofactorial preventive strategies with specific vitamin supplementation or hormonal drugs, without, however, appreciable results. More: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Examine weight benefits of whole grains

Nestle is teaming up with the Cleveland Clinic research center to conduct what it says will be amongst the largest controlled studies on the benefits of whole grains.   Read more: nutraingredients.com

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FDA approves large dose of Pfizer's aricept

(effect of donepezil on daily living)

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Drugmakers Eisai Inc. and Pfizer Inc. said on Saturday that government regulators have given them permission to make a larger dose of its Alzheimer's disease drug Aricept for patients who have already been taking the smaller dose. Aricept is the version of the drug donepezil, and is co-marketed by Eisai, of Japan, and Pfizer. Its 2009 revenue for Pfizer was $432 million, with another $3.3 billion for Eisai, making it the largest seller out of four drugs that can temporarily reduce Alzheimer's symptoms. The companies said the higher dose improved scores on a patient test that measures cognition. There was no difference on a different test that measures global function. Approval by the Food and Drug Administration followed a study of 1,467 patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer's. It said the larger dose is recommended for patients who are already taking smaller doses daily for at least three months. 

Background: We aimed to develop a standardization method to pool data recorded on different activities of daily living (ADL) scales in order to reduce variability of functional outcome data from Alzheimer's disease (AD) clinical trials and to better evaluate the effect of donepezil treatment on function in patients with AD. Methods: Based on pre-specified criteria, six studies were selected from among all donepezil clinical trials in AD. Individual items from nine ADL scales used in these trials were mapped to a standardized functional scale comprising 12 domains (six basic, six instrumental); scores were transformed to a 0-100 scale. External validation of this scale yielded a concordance rate of 90.8%. For each domain, mean change from baseline to 24 weeks in the placebo and donepezil groups was compared for the total population and for subgroups stratified by baseline disease severity. Study settings included outpatient, assisted living, and skilled nursing facilities. Participants comprised 2183 patients (donepezil, 1261; placebo; 922) with baseline Mini-mental State Examination (MMSE) scores 5-26.Results: Significant treatment differences favoring donepezil were observed for five items (two instrumental and three basic). Patients with moderate AD at baseline (MMSE 10-17) demonstrated the greatest treatment effect. Conclusion: Functional data were successfully pooled using standardizing methodology. A beneficial effect of donepezil treatment on function was demonstrated using this standardized functional scale. Similar analyses from studies with other anti-dementia drugs may help to determine the generalizability of these findings and potentially encourage use of functional assessment as a clinical tool.  More: lasvegassun.com & ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Lactobacillus reuteri had a positive effect on bowel frequency in infants

Italian researchers have found that Lactobacillus reuteri had a positive effect on bowel frequency in infants suffering from functional chronic constipation.  Read more: nutraingredients.com

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Physical Activity and the Prevention of Alzheimer's Disease

(the association between physical activity and its potential impact on the risk)

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A number of factors, including physical activity, may contribute to prevention of cognitive decline and delay the onset of dementia. In addition to its convincing multiple benefits, an increasing body of evidence suggests that an active life has a protective effect on brain functioning in elders. Physical activity may also slow down the course of Alzheimer's disease. These hypotheses have led to increasing research in this specific area during the past decade. This review systematically analyzes the current literature on Alzheimer's disease and the effect of physical activity. Epidemiological studies, short-term randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in nondemented participants, and biological research suggest that physical activity improves cognitive function in older subjects. The limitations of these works are discussed. No RCTs have yet demonstrated that regular physical activity prevents dementia. Additional challenging clinical interventional studies are needed to demonstrate this relationship, but accumulating evidence from biological research is available. Defining the optimal preventive and therapeutic strategies in terms of type, duration, and intensity of physical activity remain an open question. In the future, the prevention of Alzheimer's disease may be based on rules governing lifestyle habits such as diet, cognitive activity, and physical activity. More: sciencedirect.com

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Diet and exercise can improve human brain

A combination of diet and lifestyle changes decreases Alzheimer’s-like symptoms in dogs more than either treatment does on its own, a new study shows. The findings show the importance of taking multiple approaches to arrest the disease in humans, the authors say. Their results also provide evidence supporting recent research that suggests plaque deposits in the brain are not the cause of Alzheimer’s.  Read more: usnews.com

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Associations of vascular risk factors with Alzheimer disease

(risk score predicted dementia well)

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Late-onset Alzheimer disease (LOAD) is the most frequent cause of dementia in Western societies. It is estimated that approximately 5 million people in the United States and 17 million worldwide have the disease. By age 85 years and older, 15% to 30% are affected, and the incidence rate increases from approximately 1% among people aged 65 to 70 years to approximately 6% to 8% for people aged 85 years and older. It is expected that these numbers will quadruple by the year 2040, by which time 1 of 45 Americans will be affected, leading to a considerable public health burden. As there is no curative treatment available, extensive efforts for the prevention of dementia in persons at risk are needed. Delaying LOAD onset, by modifying risk or lifestyle, could significantly decrease the prevalence and public health burden. For example, a delay in onset of 1 year would translate to almost 1 million fewer prevalent cases in the United States.
Valuable tools for targeting preventive measures to those at risk of the disease are risk scores. They have been frequently used in population-based settings, in particular to predict the risks of vascular disorders such as stroke, cardiovascular events, diabetes, and mortality from vascular causes. They commonly include few known risk factors that are easily measurable to calculate the subsequent risk of an event or disease within a given time frame. Although the absolute risk of an event may differ across populations, risk ranking by use of risk scores is consistent. An additional benefit of risk scores is that they can be used to transmit easily understandable information about risk factors to the general population.
Although vascular disease and vascular risk factors including stroke, diabetes, hypertension, smoking, heart disease, dyslipidemia, and obesity have been implicated in the risk of LOAD, only Kivipelto et al have published a score for predicting dementia based on common and easily measurable risk factors; this score was based on risk factor profiles present in middle age.
Barnes et al developed a dementia risk index for use in late life that can accurately stratify older adults into those with a low, moderate, or high risk of developing dementia within 6 years. However, it includes measures that may not be readily available, such as cerebral magnetic resonance imaging and Doppler sonography of the carotid arteries.
We previously reported associations of stroke, diabetes, hyperinsulinemia, hypertension, smoking, obesity, and dyslipidemia with cognitive impairment and dementia in the elderly. In this study, we developed a tool for predicting dementia risk in elderly individuals that is based on easily available measures and can be used to identify persons at risk as well as to adjust for confounders in epidemiologic studies of risk factors for LOAD. More: archneur.ama-assn.org

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Nutrient blend improves function of aging brain

An antioxidant, amino acid and vitamin blend could help an aging brain and boost memory performance, according to the results of a study on rats.  Read more: nutraingredients.com

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