Possible Alzheimer's Breakthrough
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(fight Alzheimer's)
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It could be an Alzheimer's breakthrough. St. Louis researchers have found evidence that anti-depressant drugs, like Prozac, may slow-down, even prevent the disease. There's just been a big boost to keep the research going. Washington University's Alzheimer's Research Center got a new name during a dedication ceremony Wednesday, after getting a bunch of money from businessman, Charles Knight and his wife, Joanne; money that was already pointing to a way to beat the "memory-eating" disease. The reach of the Knights' more than $15 million commitment for the newly named Charles and Joanne Knight Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC) had certainly gone far beyond the fountain outside the ceremony hall, but perhaps nowhere was it more important.
A studies with mice had shown astounding early results; anti-depressant medications, like Prozac, greatly slowed down the accumulation of "a-beta" proteins that form plaque in the brain and can ultimately lead to Alzheimer's. " 'A-beta' levels go down within the first 4 hours," Cirrito said. "They stay low by about 25% for a day. In mice, that's exciting. That gives us hope. We're now trying to do similar studies in people...Fluoxetine,Pprozac, was one of them. Citalopram was another. We've done it with a lot of different anti-depressants at this point. So far, they've all reduced 'a-beta' levels to a similar extent." He said the research might have had to wait until 2011, maybe 2012, for the $1.5 million dollar National Institute on Aging grant for which he'd applied. There was no guarantee he'd even get the grant.Instead, in a matter of months, his team demonstrated a potential link between already widely used anti-depressants and Alzheimer's prevention. Read more: fox2now.com
A studies with mice had shown astounding early results; anti-depressant medications, like Prozac, greatly slowed down the accumulation of "a-beta" proteins that form plaque in the brain and can ultimately lead to Alzheimer's. " 'A-beta' levels go down within the first 4 hours," Cirrito said. "They stay low by about 25% for a day. In mice, that's exciting. That gives us hope. We're now trying to do similar studies in people...Fluoxetine,Pprozac, was one of them. Citalopram was another. We've done it with a lot of different anti-depressants at this point. So far, they've all reduced 'a-beta' levels to a similar extent." He said the research might have had to wait until 2011, maybe 2012, for the $1.5 million dollar National Institute on Aging grant for which he'd applied. There was no guarantee he'd even get the grant.Instead, in a matter of months, his team demonstrated a potential link between already widely used anti-depressants and Alzheimer's prevention. Read more: fox2now.com
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