Japanese Scientists Make Alzheimers Progress

grammar fascist writes "The AP wire reports that Japanese medical researchers have developed a DNA-based vaccine that reduces the brain plaque beta amyloid without the severe brain inflammation that plagued successes in 2002. From the story 'The deposits have been cut by between 15.5 percent and 38.5 percent in mice, with no major side effects, researchers said Monday in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences [...] If all goes well, this type of treatment might be available for people in six or seven years, [lead researcher Yoh Matsumoto] said.'"

Comments

Headline Mix Up

[Sentri]

Anyone else read the headline and think: "why have the japanese made people's alzheimer's worse"

Re:Headline Mix Up

[grammar fascist]

Anyone else read the headline and think: "why have the japanese made people's alzheimer's worse"

When I submitted the story, I initially wrote the headline "Japanese Boffins Beat Alzheimer's Without Swelling," which, besides being much wittier, is obviously much clearer. Boffin swelling is a major problem in this type of research, and its defeat was very newsworthy.

Darn you, ScuttleMonkey! Darn you to heck!

Re:Headline Mix Up

[antek9]

Count me in. I don't read any 'why' into it, though, but this is some ambiguous wording, for sure. I originally thought it was about scientists making A. progress faster, as in: if you can do that, you can probably slow it down as well.
OTOH, speeding up Alzheimer's disease - albeit maybe just temporarily, and probably just the symptoms only - is just as easy as refusing patients sufficient supplies of water, read: de-hydrate them on purpose. Which does not hold much value in terms of research.

Re:Headline Mix Up

[JimXugle]

Yup.

Re:Headline Mix Up

[Eideewt]

Yep. Why would you want to make it progress? "Japanese Scientists Make Progress With Alzheimer's," would have been better, since there's no such thing as "Alzheimer's progress" anyway.

Re:Headline Mix Up

[cp.tar]

Ah, jolly good.

Good to see I'm not the only one.

Re:Headline Mix Up

[Visk]

Hmm...I forgot.

Re:Headline Mix Up

[csrster]

"Jap Egghead Senility Breakthrough" would be the British tabloid version.

Re:Headline Mix Up

[Eideewt]

I admire its grammar.

Re:Headline Mix Up

[setirw]

Not to mention the fact that ScuttleMonkey omitted the apostrophe...

Re:Headline Mix Up

[serutan]

Because as everybody knows, it's not the itching it's the swelling.

Mice. Always.

[LiftOp]

Always the mice. Again with the mice.

Just ONCE I'd like to be cured of a disease ahead of the freakin' MICE.

Re:Mice. Always.

[nog_lorp]

Well, they are the supreme rulers of the universe, why do you think they always receive so much medical treatment?! As an aside, how is 4 minutes "not giving other slashdotters a chance to post"? I'm posting in a different damn article!

Re:Mice. Always.

[antdude]

LiftOp: You can volunteer to be the first guinea pig to be tested on. :)

Re:Mice. Always.

[mph]

The mice need more help than we do. Everything causes cancer in mice.

Alzheimers Prevention

[blank89]

It's too bad that they can only slow down the disease, instead of reversing it significantly or curing it.

Re:Alzheimers Prevention

[DigiShaman]

Even if they can cure it, the damage to the brain has already been done. We are talking about major brain tissue loss here. I doubt even stem cell therapy would help much depending how much damage you've taken.

Look at it this way. If you have Alzheimers, you're screwed! It's one of the many risks of being Human when you get older.

Re:Alzheimers Prevention

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't search for perfection you will only fail.

Re:Alzheimers Prevention

[blank89]

A cure wouldn't necessarily have to reverse the Alzheimers process, just halt it (rather than slowing it down). It's true that even then for the cure to be effective the disease would have to be caught in time. What is really needed, even with the drugs that slow down the decaying effect, is a better diagnosis plan.

Re:Alzheimers Prevention

[ZigiSamblak]

"Reversing it significantly"...

As opposed to reversing it insignificantly I suppose?

Re:Alzheimers Prevention

[Anonymous Coward]

If they would cure the disease, they would not make so much money as if they would make people use the drug for the rest of their lives.

Re:Alzheimers Prevention

[Chode2235]

All that they really need to do is prevent its onset by about 10-15 years. If they could do this it would essentially eliminate the disease, as it arrives very late in life. They don't really need an outright cure, but some way to slow it down to the point where we will likely be dead from other things before we really have to worry about Alzheimers.

There was a great documentary on PBS called "The Forgetting," which went into this, I highly recommend it. http://www.pbs.org/theforgetting/coping/planning.h tml

Re:Alzheimers Prevention

[Anonymous Coward]

There is substantial evidence indicating that that amyloid plaques are not, in fact, pathalogical themselves. It is possible that these inert findings are the body's way of taking soluble beta-amyloid out of circulation where there is growing evidence that it has a pathological role. There are many diseases where these plaques are present, and the link to dementia is loose. While this may seem promising, I would be more interested in associated behavioral data in mice indicating that their mental decline slows down.

My Grandma

[Sergeant Beavis]

Can't wait six or seven years....

SO GET CRACKIN!

Fortunately, she can still remember everyone (after thinking about it for a few minutes), but she forgets what happened 2 minutes ago and gets easily confused. As you might suspect, she has to be cared for 24/7. Fortunately my Grandpa can be there for her. Unfortunately, a 90 year old man with a good brain still has a failing body to deal with.

Re:My Grandma

[Nefarious Wheel]

"Old age isn't for sissies" -- Larry Niven

What were we talking about?

Re:My Grandma

[Anonymous Coward]

Spend time with her while you can...

Mine can no longer talk, walk or feed herself. I was even too young before the disease started to remember what she was like before hand.

It's a fast moving, terrible disease.

Re:My Grandma

[micropain]

I had the same problem affecting my family. Unfortunately my grandpa's ailing body caught up with him, leaving my clueless grandmother. She's at the point now where she can't recognize herself in a mirror or what a mirror even does, for that matter. At least I'm glad she doesn't know it's happening to her.

Re:My Grandma

[jamesh]

I know it's a very sensitive issue, but why don't they have programs to test medications like this on people are basically doomed anyway. You don't get better from alzheimers disease. Sometimes you stop getting worse, but you don't get better.

I'd be quite happy to sign something now to the effect of "if I have dementia to the point where I don't even know who I am any more, and there is a potential cure or treatment, sign me up.". If it kills me, or shortens my remaining life then I haven't really lost much, those around me will have gained something as caring for someone like that is a huge burden (and often significantly shortens the life of the spouse if they are still alive), and will benefit the scientists who are testing the treatment, even if its "oh well... so it doesn't work on people afterall".

It's probably a bit late to ask me once my mind is gone though.

With alzheimers though, can they tell yet if it's that or something else without taking your brain out of year head and chopping it up? I remember quite a few years (>10) ago when I had a relative who was thus aflicted, there was lots of initial misdiagnosises (or whatever the plural of that word is), and they basically said that they only way to be sure was to wait until the patient had passed away.

Re:My Grandma

[leenks]

My girlfriend's father was diagnosed less than three years ago and can't even speak to anyone now, he just mutters. Most of the time he recognises everyone though, including me (who he has only known during the last 3 years). When I met him originally he was still able to drive (though probably shouldn't have been), could hold a conversation with you, and knew how to get himself a cup of tea. Less than three years on he can do none of that, and it is really shocking to see him on a bad day - he just sits still looking into thin air, almost like he is in a trance.

Of course, had the family GP listened to everyone and not just said it was "old age" for the last 7 or 8 years he might have stood a slightly better chance (drugs that slow down the progress, etc). A better method for diagnosis is critical for people with this disease. Unfortunately, nobody wants to take the test while they are "unaffected" because they don't want to know if they have it.

Re:My Grandma

[Anonymous Coward]

I am not a lawyer, but you might want to call one up - no, seriously.

I think what you're talking about is called a "living will"; I think such a thing could easily cover such cases. Honestly, I don't see the concept of a living will being at all useful without a "now that I'm a vegetable" clause or "when I'm declared legally incompetent" clause. So adding a paragraph or two in the case of dementia wouldn't be a bad move at all.

Re:My Grandma

[__aayllo8548]

Regarding diagnosis: as far as I can tell from a brief look at the literature (not my area of expertise), it seems that there are lots of people trying to develop imaging (MRI and PET) and biochemical (looking at levels of proteins in the cerebrospinal fluid) tests for alzheimers. It doesn't look like any have been widely adopted yet, though. Search for "alzheimers" and "diagnosis" in google scholar if you are interested.

Regarding therapy, as someone else has noted, there's always the possibility of making things worse. You might say, so what, I'm only losing time that isn't valuable to me. But the patients point of view about that might change after it's too late. And you could argue that accelerating the disease or causing some other problem would prevent the patient from benefiting from other treatments that are in development.

What is so bad about Alzheimers?

[hsmith]

You make new friends every day!

Re:What is so bad about Alzheimers?

[layer3switch]

Can I borrow few bucks from you?

Re:What is so bad about Alzheimers?

[Bros]

Another: you can post some offtopic stuff and get an Insightful+5 or Informative+5 mod.

Re:What is so bad about Alzheimers?

[Phanatic1a]

And you can hide your own Easter Eggs.

Re:What is so bad about Alzheimers?

[Anonymous Coward]

A guy walks into a doctors and complains hes ill. The doctor does some tests then calls him back into the surgery.

"I have some bad news. You have some serious illnesses. Firstly you have cancer. Secondly, Im really sorry but you also have alzheimers."

"Oh No" says the patient. "thats terrible. Oh well,It could be worse. At least I dont have cancer".

Re:What is so bad about Alzheimers?

[zen-theorist]

my grandmum was mostly surprised to have new children everyday.

Boffins Vs Scientists... FIGHT!!!

[Sentri]

I much prefer that version, although the less snappy "Japanese Scientists Make Alzheimers Cure Progress" works as well (though I suppose could be interpreted as the scientists forcing Alzheimers to cure whatever the hell 'Progress' is).

Or perhaps "Japanese Scientists Cure Alzheimers (99% swelling free, may contain traces of nuts)"

Tobacco

[domc]

I've also heard that nicotine also slows the effects of Alzheimers.

Re:Tobacco

[Joebert]

I've also heard that nicotine also slows the effects of Alzheimers.

And here all this time I thought grandpa walked around with one of thoose patches on his forehead because he was crazy.

Re:Tobacco

[P3NIS_CLEAVER]

That's Parkinsons, dumbass.

Re:Tobacco

[Anonymous Coward]

Ha Ha I got it... the tobacco reference was a few posts ago :)

Alzheimer's Programs

[Anonymous Coward]

Wyeth and Elan have a drug, AAB-001, which is a follow-up to AN-1792, the drug described as causing brain swelling 2 years ago, except AAB-001 doesn't cause brain swelling and is in Phase II trials (i.e., in humans, and not monkeys), and should be in Phase III at the end of this year. AAB-001 reduces amyloid plaque build-up and there is some anecdotal evidence coming out of the Phase II trial that some patients have achieved significant improvement (although no patient can know for sure they are on AAB-001 since it is a blinded trial.) No need to look towards the Japanese for significant Alzheimer's research, Elan and Wyeth have several programs addressing this horrible disease and are way ahead of the pre-IND drugs described in this article.

Re:Alzheimer's Programs

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, too bad we have that damn FDA, keeping us from being pumped full of all sorts of drugs that will make us live long and prosper. Just think of all the alzheimers patients that could have been cured two years ago if only they had gotten that drug. Well, cured or dead. I'm sure that the pharma company would have gotten around to mentioning that AN1792 causes brain swelling eventually, after all Vioxx was going to be labelled as possibly causing strokes and heart attacks as soon as poor, poor Merck collected the 250million it would have cost them to label it.

Re:Alzheimer's Programs

[Anonymous Coward]

you do realize that for each overweight drug addict that died from viox, more then 100 got their only chance at enjoying life without constant pain? Ooops, CNN and the NY Times didn't want you to think about that, only that good Lawyers are saving us from the Evil Capitalists.

Re:Alzheimer's Programs

[Anonymous Coward]

1. The pharma company did report the brain swelling issue as part of the clinical trials, and suspended the AN-1792 program. A month or two ago, the latest theory I saw was that AN-1792 didn't even cause the brain swelling; it was caused by a different drug given concurrently. 2. There is some risk of COX-2 inhibitors causing heart attacks at a higher rate than placebo. The real comparison that needs to be done, however is what is the risk of COX-2 inhibitors versus over-the-counter NSAID's. This study is currently being done for Celebrex and NSAID's. 3. The FDA is very good at protecting patients from adverse events caused by drugs. The FDA is not so good at protecting patients by making sure that drugs of high therapeutic value are brought to market as rapidly as possible and kept on the market when therapeutic value outweighs the adverse events. The Vioxx debacle has politicized drug approvals and drug safety. 4. I'd rather take a risky Alzheimer's treatment if it slowed or reversed the disease, versus being safe from a drug, but unable to function as a human being.

Re:Alzheimer's Programs

[stox]

Elan has quite an impressive pipeline:

http://www.elan.com/research_development/Pipeline_ Products/default.asp

In addition to AAB-001, which is currently in phase II trials, they also have AAB-002 and AAC-001. AAB-001, and AAB-002 are passive immunization agents using mono-clonal antibodies, and AAC-001 is an active immunization agent using an Immunoconjugate. Rumors are that AAB-001 is extremely efficacious. If this is true, it could conceivably be approved after phase II testing on an accelerated basis.

On another front, their drug, Tysabri, has just been re-approved for treatment of Multiple-Sclerosis.

It is truly amazing to see the advances that are being made in the area of the human immune system and treatment of disease.

Re:Alzheimer's Programs

[ClioCJS]

You do realize that for each person (why do they have to be drug addicts, and why do they have to be overweight?) that died from Vioxx, more than 100 may have decided that they would rather use a different pain treatment, than risk the possibility of suddenly dying from an unexpected heart attack? Ooops, the corporate multinationals don't want you to think about that, only that good Pharmaceuticals are eliminating pain created by the evil fat drug users.

Biotech vs. IT Careers

[billstewart]

I'm 50. It'd be really nice if they've got that Alzheimer's vaccine down solid in 10 years and seriously improved by 20 years, because I really don't want to get it. It'll also be seriously good for US society if most of the baby boomers who would have been getting it avoid it, so you younger folks don't have to spend as much taking care of us, or at least can deal with mentally competent frail old people. While we're at it, I hope the get the cancer stuff nailed down.

I've been doing various IT-like things my whole career, whether it's programming, consulting, or whatever. It's been a lot of fun, and I'm not particularly a biotech type, but I hope the tools we've built over the last few decades help the biotech folks do a much better job.

Re:Biotech vs. IT Careers

[xtal]

Kinda makes you think about taking up smoking, eh?

Well you know. Smoking takes ten years off your life." Well it's the ten worst years, isn't it folks? It's the ones at the end! It's the wheelchair kidney dialysis fucking years. You can have those years!

Food for thought, as I watch my relatives fall victim to severe mental deterioration.

Re:Biotech vs. IT Careers

[Manchot]

I completely agree. My grandfather recently died from Alzheimer's after a relatively short bout with it: he went from diagnosis to end-stage in about four years. According to the Wikipedia page, this time span is on the low end. For me, the hardest part about it wasn't its effects on my grandfather, whom I had known reasonably well, but on my father, who's 47 years old and is now convinced that the same thing will happen to him. If this gets developed, it will offer him one of the most important things: peace of mind.

Re:Biotech vs. IT Careers

[slughead]

There's a huge link* to obesity + under-stimulation in the brain and Alzheimer's.

If you don't want to get it, keeping fit and doing brain-stimulation exercises (like programming) may* help.

* please note that I used the word 'may' in regards to a 'link', before you reply

At the very least, they have proven that your IQ raises and lowers depending on how stimulating your life is... There is also a strong correlation between getting girls and not being obese, which is always nice.

Re:Biotech vs. IT Careers

[glitch!]

Kinda makes you think about taking up smoking, eh?

You probably don't know how insightful your comment really is. There seems to be evidence of a link between alzheimers and acetylcholine in the brain and nicotine helping the overall situation. More study is obviously needed for us to find out if nicotine really does help treat or prevent alzheimers or if it is just some chance anomoly.

Food for thought, as I watch my relatives fall victim to severe mental deterioration.

Please, do a google search for "nicotine alzheimer's acetylcholine" and/or similar terms and see if you can dig up anything useful to your situation. I lost one of my grandfathers two decades ago to alzheimers and commercial tobaccco related diseases. Note the key point of commercial/poisonous tobacco here. He had to quit smoking many years before alzheimers kicked in, and now I have to wonder whether nicotine patches (or whatever) might have prevented the truly gut wrenching problems of alzheimers in his last few years of life.

Re:Biotech vs. IT Careers

[Anonymous Coward]

Smoking doesn't just shorten your life. It also makes the last bit of it terrible. You very well may trade getting Alzheimer's in your 80's for getting emphysema in your 70's (being unable to breathe without an oxygen tank sucks).

Re:Biotech vs. IT Careers

[Eivind]

Except smoking significantly reduces your healthy years too. Smokers don't just on the average die sooner than non-smokers -- they also on the average get sick sooner. Really, it's a nonsense argument, if you really considered living those last sick years a net detriment rather than a net benefit, suicide at the point where you get sick would be the only logical choise.

Somehow, most people change their mind on this the minute they are sick. (ok, so some old people do commit suicide, but it's not exactly the majority.)

Re:Biotech vs. IT Careers

[jcr]

Dying from emphysema isn't a more pleasant alternative.

-jcr

Re:Biotech vs. IT Careers

[Anonymous Coward]

What people forget is they instead spend their last years using supplemental oxygen, using inhalers, frequent hospital visits and general feeling of breathlessness all the time (this is just from the emphysema) and when they finally get lung cancer, an extremely painful death.

Re:Biotech vs. IT Careers

[vux984]

Food for thought, as I watch my relatives fall victim to severe mental deterioration.

The prospect of losing your mind is far scarier than actually losing it. Because when it actually happens you won't know its missing. Its much harder on those around you.

That said, the early stage Alzheimer's victims I know, while afraid, very pragmatically, just want to make the most of the time they have left before they are gone, exactly what most healthy elderly people say.

Is choking to death on a cancerous lung really preferable? Is being mentally alert but trapped in a rapidly deteriorating body really better than having a deteriorating mind in a healthy body?

Re:Biotech vs. IT Careers

[Bozdune]

Um, actually you DO know you're losing it. That's even scarier.

Re:Biotech vs. IT Careers

[defile39]

We wouldn't have been able to make sense of all the A's, G's, C's, and T's without you. And 3D protein imaging? Forget about it . . .

Re:Biotech vs. IT Careers

[emh203]

Kinda makes you think about taking up smoking, eh?

What a stupid comment. You really think that lung cancer is a peaceful way to die? Painfully wasting away in a bed isn't much better. I am watching my Mother-in-law go through this with that same attitude.

Re:Biotech vs. IT Careers

[computer_redneck]

A few months back I read an article similar to the following. I had one grandmother who died after over 15 years with Alzheimers and one that is currently going through Alzheimers and probably will be around for another 10, She is 93 now.

This article and a few others if you google tells an interesting tale.

http://www.nationalreviewofmedicine.com/issue/2005 /12_15/2_advances_medicine01_21.html

Not sure how to format but heck if you can follow the link alls the better.

Re:Biotech vs. IT Careers

[bokutoe]

Smoking? How about a real drug like H. In the last few years of your life, why not?

Re:Biotech vs. IT Careers

[Anonymous Coward]

Not so, my friend.

The suicide rate among Americans 65+ is the highest rate of any age group.

Re:Biotech vs. IT Careers

[Trogre]

Smoking doesn't avoid those years - it just makes them happen sooner.

Re:Biotech vs. IT Careers

[xtal]

My grandmother died from lung cancer (smoking).

I'm watching my father and grandfather die from mental deterioration brought on by Pick's Disease and Alzheimers.

I'd take the lung cancer in a second. YMMV.

No, no, no!!

[McBainLives]

You're not supposed to make it progress, you're supposed to make it slow down!!!

Oh, wait- /grumble

Darn RSS headline-only POS...

Re:No, no, no!!

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

"Darn RSS headline-only POS..."

Lucky you. The only headlines I get from Slasdot's RSS are "You've been banned for 48 hours".

Re:No, no, no!!

[Anonymous Coward]

You've been polling the rss feed too often. Either grab it from an rss aggregator site, or poll less frequently. See the /. FAQ to see just how often you're allowed to poll.

News flash!

[Dasher42]

Alzheimer's progresses on its own.

Is it still a problem of cause or effect?

[bunbuntheminilop]

When I did biochemistry back in the day, the plaques were obviously in greater amounts in those with the disease, but these plaques were on everyone's brains. Nobody knew if this was the cause of the disease or an effect of the disease. Has this changed? Is there now proof that the plaques actually cause the disease?

Has someone shown yet what they actually do?

Re:Is it still a problem of cause or effect?

[LazyDino]

Although plaques are one of the hallmarks of the disease, they're probably not the cause. As you pointed out, healthy brain tissue contains plaques, and plaque formation isn't necessarily correlated with the progression of the disease.

However, beta-amyloid seems to play a significant role. "Older" patients with Down's syndrome often develop Alzheimer's disease, and this is thought to be due to additional expression of APP (amyloid precursor protein), which is the precursor of beta-amyloid. The gene for APP is found on chromosome 21, the extra chromosome found in Down's syndrome patients. People with early-onset forms of Alzheimer's often have mutations in genes that are related to APP processing. Beta-amyloid seems to be upstream in the pathway that causes the hyperphosphorylation of tau, which is the protein involved in tangles, the other hallmark of the disease. Vaccination experiments involving beta-amyloid show reduced neurotoxicity and the resoration of long-term potentiation (LTP), a mechanism involved in memory formation.

In spite of all this evidence, APP and beta-amyloid are found in healthy brain tissue, so there's something else at work that involves beta-amyloid but not plaques. Some researchers believe that small, soluble oligomers of beta-amyloid (sometimes referred to as ADDLs) are the neurotoxic forms of amyloid-beta. ADDLs retard LTP, and they specifically target synapses. LTP is restored by vaccinations against ADDLs.

So what causes ADDL formation? Unfortunately, we don't know. Beta-amyloid may turn out to be a "cause" of Alzheimer's disease, but in turn, there must be a reason why the body loses the ability to keep beta-amyloid in check.

Re:Is it still a problem of cause or effect?

[Aqua_boy17]

"the plaques were obviously in greater amounts in those with the disease, but these plaques were on everyone's brains."

So, what you're really saying is that we need some sort of mental floss? Just asking.

Those scientists won't be too popular today.

[GrpA]

After last night's soccer loss to Australia 3:1, it seems that most Japanese just want to forget...

GrpA.

Heh, But seriously, great research. Good to hear.

Re:Those scientists won't be too popular today.

[numbware]

Why were Japan and Australia playing soccer against eachother? Is there something special going on?

- Confused American

Re:Those scientists won't be too popular today.

[eraserewind]

Confused American

Didn't I see you line out for Team USA yesterday?

Re:Now Remember...

[Beryllium Sphere(tm)]

Using a good grade of mental floss.

And in other news...

[Anonymous Coward]

Japanese scientists make Alzheimers progress.

Bio-informatics

[Beryllium Sphere(tm)]

There are some nify algorithms for searching DNA sequences, and unspeakable data loads from some experiments (not quite as bad as high energy physics but severe).

There's lots of room for an IT person to contribute to biotech.

Folding@Home

[nacturation]

Rather than waiting for ET to call or look for prime numbers, donate your spare CPU cycles to running the Folding@Home client. Its goal is to find out why proteins (mis)fold and how that affects things like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Cancer, Huntington's, and related diseases. Damn, would it be cool to have it be my computer that identified an alien signal... but since a close relative has been diagnosed with Parkinson's I'd much rather do something that's more immediately beneficial.

It'd be interesting to hear if/how the Folding@Home project has helped out groups like this.

Re:Folding@Home

[foamrotreturns]

Along this same vein is the Rosetta@Home project. Both are worthy causes and I would definitely recommend both of them.

Re:Folding@Home

[Turn-X Alphonse]

Nice post. Is there ant sort of referal program so you piggy back from people you've got to join up?

I have a 3 gig processor and dont do much but chat and surf most the time so figure I should put that to good use and run it.

Re:Folding@Home

[Anonymous Coward]

Rosetta@Home actually makes progress, unlike folding@home. David Baker, lead researcher using Rosetta@home is well known as the best protein structure prediction scientist in the world. Either program will use your extra clock cycles, it's just that Rosetta@home uses those cycles, while folding at home wastes them.

Re:Folding@Home

[Anonymous Coward]

Brute force is a reflex ,usually it shows that something is fundementaly wrong.Protein folding is very complex.The amount of time and energy spent on solving this problem leads me to think that there is something wrong with their understanding of the backbone structure.I do think they need to spend more time looking at the fundemental backbone and its bonding.It like pounding on a tv untill you notice that it is not pluged in.I have made a model of a bonding system that resembles protein folding motiffs ,but i have no one to send it to.I could tell you were I think the problem is,but I am not.

Re:Folding@Home

[Wierdy1024]

Hate to spoil the fun, but if you've got a seriously meaty processor, it costs you a seriously meaty amount in electricity to run folding@Home, when compared to leaving the system idle, or even better off.

I'm not sure exactly, but I think someone measured it to be about 60 Watts more (about 4 low energy bulbs).

Re:Folding@Home

[Breakfast Pants]

Aliens already have the folding problem solved.

Re:Folding@Home

[gid]

Which is precicely why I stopped running all those types of programs about 5 years ago. Not only does it use more electricity, it also creates more heat, and this room gets hot enough between my linux and windows boxes already... and I do try to turn my windows machine off when I can. Funny how things change once I start paying the electric bill. :)

Re:Folding@Home

[nacturation]

Is there ant sort of referal program so you piggy back from people you've got to join up?

You can create a team and then see how well the team does as a whole. That's about the only kind of thing I can think of. Google did this with their Google toolbar... if you enable the Folding@Home part, you are part of their team.

Re:Folding@Home

[nacturation]

I'm not sure exactly, but I think someone measured it to be about 60 Watts more (about 4 low energy bulbs).

That's like leaving one incandescent light on. Electricity is cheap and if it'll help out even a bit I'm happy to spend the extra ten cents a day.

Re:Folding@Home

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice.

Re:Folding@Home

[ahsile]

Heh. I totally agree with you. Moved from an all-inclusive apartment to one where I'm paying the utilities. I've since begun to turn my PC off at night (which stays off until I get home at 5pm). It saves a signigicant amount of electricity.

On the other hand, I have no qualms about running this on my pc at work and leaving it on.

OK, but the US beat them to it last week...

[Anonymous Coward]

New Alzheimer's Vaccine Reverses Memory Loss
05.31.06

http://www.byrdinstitute.org/news/institute-news/0 5-31-06.asp

Oh no! They made it progress?!

[robolemon]

I only hope they can reverse it and make it regress!

Heh.

Aluminum...

[aapold]

I hope this and other stuff like this works before I get my onset... as a kid I had a bad habit of chewing aluminum can tabs, and I'm sure significan quantities broke off over the years...

Re:Aluminum...

[NotQuiteReal]

I wouldn't worry about it.

I think the latest scientific evidence is that aluminum has nothing to do with Altzheimers.

Re:Aluminum...

[alchemist68]

I hope this and other stuff like this works before I get my onset... as a kid I had a bad habit of chewing aluminum can tabs, and I'm sure significan quantities broke off over the years...

ALUMINUM DOES NOT CAUSE ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE. This is a fallacy due to a Biologist not knowing how to operate an electron microscope. At that time, the "Aluminum" in Alheimer's patients' brains was the result of the biologist having the electron intensity turned-up too high, and instead of detecting just brain tissue, the biologist detected the Aluminum support holding the brain tissue.

So, the moral of the story is: KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING IN THE LABORATORY AND HAVE ACCURATE AND PRECISE DATA ANALYSIS WITH MEANINGFUL REPLICATION OF EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS BEFORE PUBLISHING IN JOURNALS!!!

It's been more than 10 years and the public still thinks that using products with "Aluminum", i.e. soda cans, anti-perspirant, etc... will cause/contribute to Alzheimer's disease. Wrong Wrong Wrong!!!

Re:Aluminum...

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually the scientists forgot that it had anything to do with Alzheimers.

Re:Aluminum...

[Shimmer]

Please cite a reference, since Google doesn't back you up.

The information I've seen fails to establish a direct link between aluminum and Alzheimer's, but doesn't disprove it either.

Re:Aluminum...

[Neflyte_Zero]

I'm Alcoa Director, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer Alain J. P. Belda and I approve of the preceding message.

I can't understand why you alarmist types would be trying to obfuscate the clearly valid factoids and overall truthiness of the article by demanding to see things like "sources" and "citations".

Why, the fact that this post contains copious amounts of capitalized letters, many exclamation points, and a passionate cry for understanding should indeed be enough to satisfy the most critical eye and quiet the nay-sayers.

Indeed, my dedicated team of scienceologists PERSONALLY assure me that aluminum is completely harmless with regards to Alzheimer's Disease. Why, I've been an active consumer of all things aluminum - from travelling in airplanes to drinking sodas from aluminum cans to keeping myself sweat-free at important board meetings with antiperspirant - for many years and I'm quite sure I'd remember if my doctor told me I was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

So fear not gentle consumer! Continue to enjoy your favourite metal in peace and don't let this speculation about the alleged "truth" of the post above weigh heavily on your mind.

That is all.

Re:Aluminum...

[Emnar]

Please cite a reference, since Google doesn't back you up.

I'm not sure about the GP's story, but here are two web references:

National Institute of Health:

Epidemiological studies attempting to link AD with exposures in drinking water have been inconclusive and contradictory. Thus, the significance of increased aluminum intake with regard to onset of AD has not been determined.

Alzheimer's Society (UK):

The overwhelming medical and scientific opinion is that the findings outlined above do not convincingly demonstrate a causal relationship between aluminium and Alzheimer's disease, and that no useful medical or public health recommendations can be made, at least at present.

It appears the consensus from reputable sites is that we don't know, and there's no consistent correlation that's shown up in studies so far.

Re:Aluminum...

[milimetric]

are you sure...? Cause I read this article... and I mean, what are the chances of Articles being wrong?

No but seriously, any sources to back you up cause I'd like to start using deodorant again.

Re:Aluminum...

[blackest_k]

http://www.sciam.com/askexpert_question.cfm?articl eID=0000FCD2-AA88-1C71-9EB7809EC588F2D7&catID=3

seems to suggest that aluminium has no proven effect either way, many other articles seem to go with the traditional alumium causes alzheimers desease. many state scientists disagree.

however it seems aluminium is unavoidable and that since we are all universally exposed the incidence of alzheimers should be higher. Maybe i will try to avoid aluminium when I have lost a significant amount of weight and have quit smoking.

Re:Now Remember...

[Anonymous Coward]

Take your obscure references elsewhere, parrothead. Beachhouse on the Moon is so NOT a good album.

Kill the scientists!

[MarkRose]

Japanese Scientists Make Alzheimers Progress

So if we eliminate the Japanese scientists, would it slow Alzheimer's down?

definitely no cure

[r00t]

Just forget about it.

Alzheimer's isn't so bad. . .

[Who235]

I make a lot of new friends.

Is that you, Clarence? I haven't seen you for years. Do you remember the time the Mercury backfired and almost tore your arm off while you were trying to get it started? Those were the days alright.

Anyway . . . what was I talking about?

Alzheimer's isn't so bad.

Is that you Clarence. . . ?

Alzheimer's disaster looming

[grisken]

"Alzheimer's disease will overwhelm the nation's Medicare system in less than 25 years unless scientists find a way to prevent or cure it." [Tulsaworld.com] The article also states that more than a third of current Medicare expenditures are related to Alzheimer's and that figure will grow quickly as the U.S. population ages. Now if those figures are true its about time they (the men in white coats) found a cure for this disease. It is also remarkably (as well as suspiciously) timely. Guess they knew this was coming

The researchers

[djdanlib]

Those smart researchers. They researched a.. uh... DNA... vaccine... hmmm.. uh, shoot, what was I talking about? Oh well. When's lunch?

Slashdot

[mnemonic_]

Slashdot is good.

Re:Now Remember...

[ozmanjusri]

I might be movin' to Montana soon
Just to raise me up a crop of Mental Floss Raisin' it up
Waxen it down
In a little white box
I can sell uptown

Canada has a potential cure

[Anonymous Coward]

I know this is not something magical, but in Canada they started a safety trial on a drug that stops and even reverses Alzheimers. It was just in the news here 2 days ago.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2006/06/1 2/alzheimer-mice.html

This would probably work better

[Anonymous Coward]

www.mentalfloss.com

But are extracellular plaques the probelm??

[kim69]

First off it was obvious from the Elan trials that suddenly making a protein abundant in plaques in the brain (amyloid beta) into an antigen would lead to inflammation.... what were they thinking!

Immunotherapy has been successfully used in multiple mouse models of AD, including peripheral active and passive immuunisation. But here is the question: Is removing extracellular amyloid plaques in human AD going to cure the disease?? The probable answer is no, more and more researchers are showing that plaques are an end point - a protective state of amyloid that traps free floating "harmfull" amyloid into a dense core where it cant do any harm.

The harmfull effects of amyloid are being shown to be mediated by the soluble and oligomeric species - that is a single amyloid peptide or a bunch stuck together, usually with a mass of less than 100kda. So far we dont know if immunotherapy in humans will affect these harmful "amyloids" or not. The post mortem results from the Elan trials were pesimestic at best - patients who recieved the injections had reduced amyloid plaque burden, but cognitively, at best (and this is from the company line) did not cognitively deteriate as fast as without the antibodies.

Either way I'll put my money on a nice BACE inhibitor. Forget about the gamma-secretase ones, thats one complex you really dont want to be messing with!

Re:But are extracellular plaques the probelm??

[Anonymous Coward]

There may be a good reason why prion related genes evolved very early in evolution.Evolution has a way to stop redundancy.There may be no advantage in a evolution based view to have greatgrandparents.Social systems increase in complexity for many good reasons.It may be true that the only constant is that history decays.DNA ,RNA,and protein is a system used to store and use information.Politics,science,and religion is another form of a system that is used to store and use information.Grandparents,parents and children seem like the same type of system.They seem to be fluid type systems.maybe related to a threebody system.

  The madcow prion seems to stop redundant practices also.Many systems would not evolve if they ate the closest avalable energy source .A complex social system would never evolve if they ate their neighbor.It may be that we rely on a very old set of genes to keep us from destroying ourselves.

Re:Headline nothing, as they are rasists and thiev

[Ninjaesque One]

Do the mods browse at 1? It says, specifically, that you should browse at -1, just because of posts like the parent.

On the same day...

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/060612-2365.asp ... related?

symptoms vs. cause

[nido]

you are correct to question the relationship between these plaques and the dementia known as alzheimers.

To paraphrase a quote:

'Modern medicine had tried to cure the symptoms of disease. The Cayce readings focused on building a healthy body that could throw off disease and disorder.' (emphasis added. pretty sure the quote is from With This Gift.)

The problem with curing a symptom is that the cause of the problem always manifests itself in a new form.

For example, the primary factor in polio outbreaks was the large amount of sugar consumed in industrial countries:

... The fact that polio has not been prevented by advanced sanitation and hygiene indicates that its incidence is controlled and influenced by factors quite different from the factors that bring about the spread of typhoid and the other diseases. As previously stated, advanced sanitation and hygiene are to be found in the richer countries, and one of the unfortunate evils that accompany wealth is the consumption of sugar in the form of luxury foods such as ice cream, candies, soft drinks, cakes, pies, pastries, and the like. Poor countries cannot afford luxury foods, sanitation and hygiene. That is how I would explain the greater incidence of polio in countries with advanced sanitation and hygiene. The following table shows the extreme differences in sugar consumption in various parts of the world and it will be readily noted that the countries with the lowest sugar consumption are most backward in sanitation and hygiene.

Thus we see that sugar consumption is by far the greatest in the richer countries where one would also expect to find advanced sanitation and hygiene. Epidemics have occurred with the greatest frequency and severity in the high sugar consuming countries. In fact, epidemics have never been reported in the natives of the low sugar consuming countries, such as China.

-http://www.whale.to/v/sandler12.html

Sure, polio was conquered by a vaccine. But now we have epidemics of cancer, heart disease, alzheimers, and many other degenerative diseases.

I suspect that my greatgrandparents were much healthier than my grandparents. They lived their lives, and had a relatively quick decline (1-2 years?) before they died. My grandparents have been living in a long, slow (multi-decade) downward spiral into infirmity. Improvements in lifespan today can primarily be attributed to modern sewage systems, and improved survival rates for children less than 5.

The medical monopoly just takes credit where no credit is due.

Re:symptoms vs. cause

[fahrbot-bot]

'Modern medicine had tried to cure the symptoms of disease. The Cayce readings focused on building a healthy body that could throw off disease and disorder.'

On the other hand, my wife died of an incurable brain tumor, Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM). Curing that "symptom" would have been nice...for now.

Re:symptoms vs. cause

[nido]

On the other hand, my wife died of an incurable brain tumor, Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM). Curing that "symptom" would have been nice...for now.

Even a cancerous tumor is a symptom of some other problem. Consider Dr. Hamer's findings on the relationship between the psyche and disease:

Dr. Hamer realized that his wife's death and his own cancer had to be connected somehow with the tragic shooting and eventual death of their son, Dirk. As a medical doctor, scientific researcher and head internist of an oncology clinic in Munich, Dr. Hamer was in the position to be able to come to the conclusion that a physical event can create a biological conflict shock that manifests in a visible physical transformation in the brain, and leads to a measurable change in physical-nervous parameters and to the development of cancerous growths, ulcerations, necroses and functional disturbances in specific organs of the body.

-http://www.newmedicine.ca/overview.php (emphasis in original)

Also see this interview at the same site. Apparently the doctor developed a protocol that is highly effective.

My condolences on the premature passing of your wife.

Re:symptoms vs. cause

[Unc-70]

I wouldn't trust anything Hamer said, check his entry on wikipedia:

Ryke Geerd Hamer (born 1935) is a former German physician. He worked in the internal medicine department at the Clinics of Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen from 1972 to 1981, when he had to resign. He was under investigation several times on allegations of malpractice, leading to the death of patients; from September 2004 to February 2006, after being in jail in Germany from 1997 to 1998, he served a prison term in Prison Fleury Merogis / France on counts of fraud and illegal practicioning. Hamer became known mainly through his association with the Olivia Pilhar cancer case in 1995. Her parents, convinced supporters of Hamer and his pretensions, withheld medical therapy from their child Olivia. The Austrian authorities finally removed their rights of care and control, and the parents then fled from Austria to Spain with the child. There, Hamer unsuccessfully treated the child using his method, the tumour continued to grow. After negotiations, the parents were convinced to return. By now, Olivias tumour weighed several kilograms. The child was finally given emergency medical treatment after court order, against the parents' wishes and is still alive and healthy in 2006. Her parents received an eight month suspended jail sentence in Austria. Basically, according to Hamer, any disease, most notably cancer, is not dangerous in itself, but merely a symptom of a mental conflict situation. This conflict needs to be resolved in order for the disease to be cured while the traditional treatments are not considered as having a primary value. ... The conflict between supporters and opponents of Hamer's pretensions, at the base of which what he calls "biological laws" lays, has become more acrimonious over the years, with Hamer using anti-semitic terminology and claiming that a genocidal Jewish conspiracy wants him silenced. In a similar vein, he has started to call his theoretical groundwork "German New Medicine" (GNM) - a registered trademark - or, in a literal translation from German, "Germanic New Medicine", instead of the formerly-used term "New Medicine".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryke_Geerd_Hamer

Re:symptoms vs. cause

[nido]

My grandma trusted Mayo clinic, and all they did was extend her period of suffering before she died. Bastards took medicare for between $50k and $100k. After six months of worthless treatment, they decided they'd worked her for all she was worth (bone marrow was >90% cancerous, even after all their "therapy") and she started hospice care. Died a week later.

Dr. Hamer challenges the materialistic notion that matter is primary, therefore his revolutionary ideas must be suppressed. Governments always throw the best healers in jail... Jesus, Wilhelm Reich, Ruth Drown, all killed at the hands of the state. Gerber was ran out of the country.

Some people will not respond well to Hamer's system. Some respond remarkably. It seems that some people cast off by the establishment as "terminal" respond beautifully, so what's the harm in having a choice? Other than to the bottom line of the high-priced cancer industry, that is...

Re:symptoms vs. cause

[Unc-70]

Well, that is of course tragic about your grandmother, I won't go into my personal experiences as it has no bearing on this discussion and because anecdotal evidence isn't evidence.

Hamer's approach has been shown to lack effect, consider reports by German medical authorities:

No case of a cure of a cancer patient by Hamer.s method has yet been published in medical literature. Neither have any studies to this effect been published in the specialised press. The Hamer foci on the CT images in Hamer.s books have been identified by radiological experts as typical artefacts produced by the radiological device which can appear in a poor-quality CT scan. Spiegel magazine reports an investigation by the authorities in Germany, stating that out of 50 cancer patients who have passed through Hamer.s care only seven have survived. The numerous case reports in Hamer.s books, often described in highly empathetic fashion, lack the additional data that are essential for medical assessment, and the cures described must therefore be subject to doubt.

http://www.swisscancer.ch/dt_fr/content/orange/pdf /skak/01_02_hamer_e.pdf

Cancer is clearly materialistic. To deny the carcinogenic effects of tobacco smoke, as Hamer does, is ludicrous.

The harm in the choice is that people may reject therapies for which there is evidence of potential benefit for snake oil which will not work.

Re:symptoms vs. cause

[nido]

There was nothing tragic about my grandmother's passing. It was her time to go, and all things considered, her last few months were okay. I'm just a little pissed that the Mayo Clinic profiteered by offering the rest my family false hope that they could "save" grandma. (I encouraged Hospice right from the start).

I'm not overly familiar with Hamer's work. I was exposed to it by someone who has some incredible skills in getting people what they want out of life. My experience is that the personality type/cancer connection is valid. Grandma was always ... cold and "heartless". My cousin's wife has been, as long as I've known her, extremely anxious, and she just had surgery (again) for cervical cancer.

To deny the carcinogenic effects of tobacco smoke, as Hamer does, is ludicrous.

And yet, thousands of smokers never get cancer. Besides, it seems that it's not the tobacco smoke that's carcinogenic, but the radiation you get along with it:

Radioactive fertilizer

It's a well established but little known fact that commercially grown tobacco is contaminated with radiation. The major source of this radiation is phosphate fertilizer.1 The big tobacco companies all use chemical phosphate fertilizer, which is high in radioactive metals, year after year on the same soil. These metals build up in the soil, attach themselves to the resinous tobacco leaf and ride tobacco trichomes in tobacco smoke, gathering in small "hot spots" in the small-air passageways of the lungs.2 Tobacco is especially effective at absorbing radioactive elements from phosphate fertilizers, and also from naturally occurring radiation in the soil, air, and water.3

To grow what the tobacco industry calls "more flavorful" tobacco, US farmers use high-phosphate fertilizers. The phosphate is taken from a rock mineral, apatite, that is ground into powder, dissolved in acid and further processed. Apatite rock also contains radium, and the radioactive elements lead 210 and polonium 210. The radioactivity of common chemical fertilizer can be verified with a Geiger-Mueller counter and an open sack of everyday 13-13-13 type of fertilizer (or any other chemical fertilizer high in phosphate content).4

Conservative estimates put the level of radiation absorbed by a pack-and-a-half a day smoker at the equivalent of 300 chest X-rays every year.5 The Office of Radiation, Chemical & Biological Safety at Michigan State University reports that the radiation level for the same smoker was as high as 800 chest X-rays per year.6 Another report argues that a typical nicotine user might be getting the equivalent of almost 22,000 chest X-rays per year.7 ...

Tobacco smoking has been popular for centuries,11 but lung cancer rates have only increased significantly after the 1930's.12 In 1930 the lung cancer death rate for white US males was 3.8 per 100,000 people. By 1956 the rate had increased almost tenfold, to 31 per 100,000.13 Between 1938 and 1960, the level of polonium 210 in American tobacco tripled, commensurate with the increased use of chemical fertilizers.14
-http://www.acsa2000.net/HealthAlert/radioactive_t obacco.html

The harm in the choice is that people may reject therapies for which there is evidence of potential benefit for snake oil which will not work.

The problem is that modern medicine has no guiding philosophy for health. They just treat the symptoms, and hold out their successes as validation of their approach, sweeping all the failures under the carpet.

Sometimes all a person needs is some "snake oil" (belief change). Sometimes they need to change their nutrient intake, sometimes they need to release some emotional trauma. Sometimes surgery is called for, sometimes drugs. Sometimes osteopathic manipulation is appropriate.

But as it is, there's a ton of profit for pharmaceuticals in pursuing

Re:symptoms vs. cause

[Unc-70]

Does modern medicine lack a guiding philosophy? Eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, exercise a little, don't smoke and don't drink too much. Sounds good to me.

Whatever the constituent of tobacco smoke, it has a material based carcinogenic effect, contrary to Hamer's claims.

There is good evidence for the benefit of thalidomide in multiple myeloma:

Promising findings were reported today showing that the combination of thalidomide and dexamethasone (Thal/Dex) when used as initial therapy for multiple myeloma, slowed disease progression almost two-fold compared to dexamethasone alone.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/06/06060 5200148.htm

It is intereseting that you criticise the cost of thalidomide and yet consider Wilhelm Reich a suppressed healer, when his wooden boxes cost $250 a month in 1940. http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/reich.html

I won't try to defend the high prices of drugs, merely point out that is a problem of politics, specifically capitalism and private medical care, not medicine or science.

Re:symptoms vs. cause

[nido]

Does modern medicine lack a guiding philosophy? Eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, exercise a little, don't smoke and don't drink too much. Sounds good to me.

These are tacked on as an afterthought. Cayce spoke extensively about good health being the product of good assimilations and eliminations. There's so much more than "five servings" in nutrition.

One of the decent things grandma's oncologist did for her was send her to a nutritionist. Later she said, "she wanted me to eat five servings of vegetables a day. She's CRAZY!." The oncologist never again asked about grandma's diet, and went on his merry way happily trying to drug the symptoms away.

Quackwatch seems to be an organized slander campaign against health technologies outside those accepted in the allopathic paradigm. They have entries on just about anything that isn't drugs and surgery. See Quackpotwatch for one take on the organizers behind "Quackwatch".

Grandma decided to pass on the thalidomide because she knew she was dying, and wasn't about to waste $2.3k of her own money in a last-gasp effort to prolongue her life. Later my uncle, a MD/radiologist, decided that that drug probably would've done more harm than good, as thalidomide is a harsh drug (don't remember what it was exactly - kidneys perhaps?).

I won't try to defend the high prices of drugs, merely point out that is a problem of politics, specifically capitalism and private medical care, not medicine or science.

The Flexner Report was used to shut down 1/2 of the U.S. medical schools early in the last century, obstenably for "quality" reasons. The medical education system that emerged was transformed into one that focused on new patented drugs as the primary modality. Not because that approach was superior, but because that was one way for distant middlemen to stick their profiteering fingers into the doctor-patient transaction.

100 years of Medical Robery
  Real Medical Freedom

Also articles on LewRockwell.com ...

And as for Reich, remember that Cosmologists now tell us that only 4-7% of the universe is made up of matter. Another 20-something % is "dark matter", and the other 70% is classfied as "dark energy". They call it "dark" because they don't know what it is, just that some missing form of matter & energy is needed to account for their observations on the expansion of the universe. Reich was onto something 60 years ago, but most of our medical technologists still focus 100% of their attention on that 4-7% of the universe, for material drugs.

Re:symptoms vs. cause

[Unc-70]

The criticisms of quackwatch were pretty much 'we don't like what he says' rather than any attempt to dismiss the information posted.

If the dark matter/energy is so difficult to detect and measure then it is going to have no bearing on health. There is an excellent critque of WR here: http://members.dslextreme.com/users/rogermw/Reich/ . He was onto nothing but his percieved victimhood

I assume you refer to Edgar Cayce? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Cayce. You can't seriously quote a supposed psychic on nutrition.

Re:symptoms vs. cause

[nido]

Yes, that Edgar Cayce. The one who was 90% accurate. The one who gave recommendations that, if followed, resulted in improvements in cases who were previously considered "hopeless". The one who told people what they could expect - from slight improvement to complete cure. The one whose readings extensively cover proper nutrition. The Edgar Cayce who is considered the father of western wholistic medicine.

But you're just a materialist, whose belief system does not allow for information being channeled from other-than-physical sources. Why don't you go find some flat-earth socialites to hang out with? I'm 'spinning my wheels' with you here, and won't play this game any longer.

g'day. :)

Six or seven years

[Samurai Cat!]

Just in time for my Alzheimer's-suffering father to have kicked.

Yay. :(

Damn The Irony!

[colonslashslash]

I was going to crack a joke about the title and summary, but I've seriously forgotten what I was going to say.

Either way, my gran had alzheimers for a few years before she passed away. It's a horrible affliction, and it's always good to see progress being made in these areas.

Silly Japanese...

[Bueller_007]

"Japanese Scientists Make Alzheimers Progress"

Uh, shouldn't we be trying to STOP the progress of Alzheimers?

Was it the Japanese?

[thePowerOfGrayskull]

Wait, I mispronounced -- I meant to say Canadians

Damn. Did it again. I really meant to say Americans.

Re:My Grandma.. my Pa

[emjoi_gently]

Damn it's frustrating reading this kind of stuff when you know someone who has a disease like this.

My pop has ALS, and I read stuff about cures for Mice all the time, with the 5 to 10 year plan to develop the cure for humans. And of course he can't politely wait that long.

All kinds of nasty conditions seem to be on the verge of a cure.... in 5 years time.

Ahhhhh.....

[IHC Navistar]

Sorry, I forgot what this topic was about.

-----

Sig Sauer

I found some stuff

[YesIAmAScript]

Some study by Brown in 1992 says that the discovery of aluminum was due to the misuse of a chemical agent in that first study.

Keep searching, there's info out there that seems to back this up.

I wonder, if this works

[MemoryDragon]

on multiplec sclerosis as well, I have a friend suffering from it, this is a dreadful disease, and also based on inflammation of the brain.

Great News

[circletimessquare]

Perhaps one day I might be able to benefit from this discovery. Perhaps one day I might be able to benefit from this discovery. Waffles Neptune.

Woah! Wrong way!

[pablodiazgutierrez]

Stop it, guys, you're supposed to slow down or reverse Alzheimer, not make it progress!

Sugar not primary factor

[Unc-70]

I think actually the primary factor was the polio virus. Consumption of refined sugar may have been a contributing factor but there are other factors to consider, including population density and population mobility. The greater levels of both of these in more industrialised countries make epidemics more likely.

twist

[icepick72]

However when asked to comment about the research, the researchers immediately forgot why they were doing and, and they went home.

Headlines: Japanese Scientist discovers...

[MindPrison]

...what he had for lunch yesterday.

"We making pogless" - says Japanese esteemed scientist No-Me.MOri.ee
"I had Ramen!" - shouted his co-worker Sacka-poo-poo.
"Incledible, watta braktru! Wuld muste knowe nowe!"
"Wait! Baka! I can no remembe watta in this"
"Baggaroos #"%!""

Unfortunately the interview ended in a good old geriatric fight at a traditional karaokebar - so who knows - maybe they'll remember it some day!

"Grammar Fascist" wrote that?

[Anonymous Coward]

Did they edit his work, or did "Grammar Fascist" forget the comma before the cited quote, and create a sentence with too many thats?

MOD-em up funny

[Anonymous Coward]

this is good

No major side effects

[GmAz]

What about the minor ones. I am sorry, but violent vomiting, diaherrea, abdominal cramping, bleeding from somewhere, migraines, and all that other stuff considered minor side effects aren't worth it. Live in pain and agony or live with Alzheimers. Plus the vaccine only helps a little. Its a great start, but lets stop it 100%.

because it could make it worse

[bigtrike]

The previous human tests on a similar therapy ended up with a number of people in excrutiating pain due to their immune system attacking parts of their brain. While it might suck to have alzheimers, it surely sucks more to have it and be in horrible pain.

Re:Nicotine and brain disorders

[aeoneal]

Apparently schizophrenics also find nicotine useful; it reduces the "bad" quality of some symptoms.

And with alzeimers...

[DrYak]

And... huh....
ah, yas !
You make new friends every day!

Re:Folding@Home and Nature Medicine

[WillAffleckUW]

I agree, both Rosetta@Home and Folding@Home are good projects.

One should point out, to those confused by the research being announced as having come from Japanese, Canadian, and American scientists, that many such scientific papers are as a result of collaboration of a number of scientists and/or labs, frequently in multiple countries.

Or, you could just go to Nature Medicine and look it up yourself. That's where the original article that the news is based on is located.