Complications (1)
- Alzheimer's: Managing sleep problems
Definition (1)
- Early-onset Alzheimer's: When symptoms begin before 65
Risk factors (2)
- Diabetes and Alzheimer's linked
- Alzheimer's: Is it in your genes?
Symptoms (3)
- Memory loss: When to seek help
- Alzheimer's stages: How the disease progresses
- Alzheimer's or depression: Could it be both?
Tests and diagnosis (3)
- Diagnosing Alzheimer's: An interview with a Mayo Clinic specialist
- Positron emission tomography (PET) scan
- SPECT scan
Treatments and drugs (3)
- Alzheimer's: Getting the most from medical appointments
- Alzheimer's treatments: What's on the horizon?
- Alzheimer's drugs slow progression of disease
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Alzheimer's treatments: What's on the horizon?
Despite many promising leads, new treatments for Alzheimer's are slow to emerge. Future treatments will likely focus on stopping the disease in people at risk.
By Mayo Clinic staffAlzheimer's treatments consist mainly of medications that stabilize cognitive function, if only for a short period of time. These drugs stage a holding action, primarily postponing further cognitive declines.
But the Alzheimer's treatments of the future will focus more on preventing the disease or halting its progress in its earliest stages. The following treatment options are among the strategies currently being studied.
Alzheimer's vaccine
Immunization can reduce the number of amyloid plaques — clusters of abnormal cells associated with Alzheimer's disease — in the brain. But a human trial of an Alzheimer's vaccine was halted when several participants developed brain inflammation.
A follow-up study indicated that people who received the Alzheimer's vaccine tended to have far fewer amyloid plaques in their brains than did people who hadn't been immunized. But this didn't appear to affect the end result. The immunized participants progressed to severe dementia and died at the same rate as that of people who hadn't received the vaccine.
Some scientists believe that amyloid's harmful effects may occur before it clumps up into plaques. Researchers are investigating other forms of vaccination that may be more effective and less dangerous.
Secretase modulators
Amyloid plaques are formed from fragments of a large protein believed to be important in brain function. Secretase enzymes divide this protein into fragments. Some secretase enzymes create fragments that tend to clump into amyloid plaques, while another secretase enzyme produces fragments that don't tend to clump.
Secretase-modifying drugs might block the action of the clumping enzymes, or activate the nonclumping enzyme.
Certain anti-inflammatory drugs — including ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, others), naproxen sodium (Aleve) and indomethacin (Indocin) — appear to modify how one of these enzymes works, so that it doesn't produce fragments that clump. One of the most promising drugs being studied in this group is tarenflurbil (Flurizan).
Next page(1 of 2)
- Alzheimer's Treatment. National Institute on Aging. http://www.nia.nih.gov/Alzheimers/AlzheimersInformation/Treatment/. Accessed July 16, 2008.
- Press D, et al. Treatment of dementia. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed July 16, 2008.
- Salloway S. Taking the next steps in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease: Disease-modifying agents. CNS Spectrums. 2008;(3)(suppl):11-14.
- Press D, et al. Future directions in dementia treatments. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed July 16, 2008.
- Holmes C, et al. Long-term effects of amyloid beta immunization in Alzheimer's disease: Follow-up of a randomized, placebo-controlled phase I trial. The Lancet 2008;372(9634):216-223.
- Shah SS, et al. Current approaches in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy. 2008;62(4):199-207.
- 2007: The year in Alzheimer science. Alzheimer's Association. http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_research_ad.asp. Accessed July 21, 2008.
- Van Marum RJ. Current and future therapy in Alzheimer's disease. Fundamental and Clinical Pharmacology. 2008;22(3):265-274.
- Grodstein F. Estrogen and cognitive function. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed July 22, 2008.
