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Skin Cancer Drug Reverses Alzheimer's Symptoms In Mice

Posted by timothy on from the with-very-few-exceptions-a-mouse-is-not-a-human-being dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A skin cancer drug may rapidly reverse pathological, cognitive and memory deterioration associated with Alzheimer's disease, according to new research published on Thursday. Bexarotene, a drug that is currently used to combat T cell lymphoma, appeared to reverse plaque buildup and improve memory in the brains of mice with Alzheimer's disease by reducing levels of beta-amyloid plaques in the brain that cause mental deficits in Alzheimer's disease."

12 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. I was going to say something by bhcompy · · Score: 5, Funny

    but I forgot what we were talking about

  2. Toxilogical Info by Draconi · · Score: 5, Informative

    RTECS No: not available
    Acute toxicity: oral toxicity (LD50): >1500 mg/kg (rat); >720 mg/kg (dog)
    Dermal NOEL: 0.01% (rat)
    Primary irritant effect:
    On the skin: not known; may be an irritant; exposure may exacerbate the deleterious effects of sunlight
    On the eye: not known; may be an irritant
    Ingestion: may cause effects similar to hypervitaminosis A including headache, nausea, vomiting, lip inflammation, mucous membrane dryness, joint pain, scaly skin, and hyperlipidemia

    ---

    Yeah. I'd still take it.

    1. Re:Toxilogical Info by CanHasDIY · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah. I'd still take it.

      Me too, if it keeps me from suffering the inevitable loss of cognizance (Alzheimer's runs strong in my family).

      The thought of no longer having control over my own thought processes scares the living bejesus out of me.

      --
      An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
    2. Re:Toxilogical Info by Guppy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Ingestion: may cause effects similar to hypervitaminosis A

      Because it binds to retinoid receptors. The news summaries circulating are a little mis-leading. It's not exactly a "skin cancer" per say, but rather skin manifestations of certain kinds of leukemia. The drug treats certain types of leukemia by forcing the cells to complete differentiation.

    3. Re:Toxilogical Info by Beardo+the+Bearded · · Score: 5, Informative

      Hey, if you have a lot of wanderers in your family, check out Project Lifesaver.

      They have a wrist-mounted transmitter that lets police and caregivers (who have the receivers) find wandering patients quickly and safely. 100% success rate.

      I wrote the code for the transmitters; it was done so well that they didn't need me anymore. (They got Microchip to program them by the reel.)

      --

      ---
      ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
    4. Re:Toxilogical Info by silverspell · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Lesson learned, for sure.

      Out of curiosity, what was the lesson?

      (I'm not being a wiseass BTW. Just wondering how that experience has changed your behavior since then -- mainly, how you've protected yourself from having the same thing happen again, while still doing first-rate work in an efficient manner.)

    5. Re:Toxilogical Info by geekoid · · Score: 4, Informative

      The lesson is, when you autmate and make things more effeicent, never tell anyone.

      Years ago I went to work some place, on a team of 12 support people. Because they way there system works, it took 15 minutes after the code to get all the data into their varies systems.

      I wrote a script that did it in 25 seconds.
      So, the didn't need as many people, so the let me go.

      I'm standing there saying "Why are you letting go the guy who improves that's? Let one of those people go who sit there and do as little as possible? They mumble some nonsense.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    6. Re:Toxilogical Info by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

      The thought of no longer having control over my own thought processes scares the living bejesus out of me.

      Let me tell ya, marriage is not for you then

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  3. Check out the CNN Article on this by mykepredko · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Lots of outlets are publishing this, one of the more interesting ones was CNN's: http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/09/health/us-cancer-drug-alzheimers/index.html?hpt=he_c2

    Check out the quote: "We've fixed Alzheimer's in mice lots of times, so we need to move forward expeditiously but cautiously."

    So, would it be safe to say that Alzheimer's in mice is different from that in humans (on some level) so you might want to wait a bit before overdosing on Skin Cancer meds?

    myke

    --
    Mimetics Inc. Twitter
  4. painful advances by ffflala · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's three years ago. It is simply brutal to see what this disease does to the people you love. But given the inevitable outcome of Alzheimer's, I'll grasp at any straw I can find if it presents some remote hope of a different outcome. This kind of perspective can't help but make one feel as if you're vulnerable to hucksters. There have been similar claims about more dubious Alzheimer's treatments, such as coconut oil, but when it comes down to it my approach is "Will it kill him or hurt him? If not, then let's try it, what have we got to lose."

    The human testing and approval process for treating Alzheimer's with bexarotene will simply take too long to be of any benefit to him. I want to get a physician to approve this medication for the off-label use for my father, so we can try it on him.

    I hope it is not reckless nor irresponsible to see if I can use my father as a sort of non-controlled subject for this study. But it seems that I have the choice between (1) risking a negative, possibly fatal or crippling, reaction for a remote chance at reversing a fatal, painful disease, or (2) waiting responsibly for the gears of formal human medical approval turn, test, find that this works, and approve prescribing it for patients. What kind of a choice is that?

  5. Re:Rise of the Planet of the Mice by Dahamma · · Score: 4, Funny

    No problem, they'll just go off and live with the rats of NIMH.

  6. Tau protein by Frans+Faase · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Just a week ago, the Slashdot item Alzheimer's Transmission Pathway Discovered reported that Alzheimer was caused by the spread of the tau protein gone wrong. How is this to be interpretted in the view of the above new item?