A drug commonly used to treat arthritis caused a dramatic and rapid improvement in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, according to physicians in California. However, scientists and others not involved in the work worry that the report, which was based on trials in a few patients and hasn’t been independently confirmed, may offer little more than false hope for Alzheimer’s sufferers and their families.
From MIT Technology Review, Jan 15, 2008. Read on for some of the enticing anecdotes, such as:
“In each case, the person was more alert, calm, attentive, and they stayed on track,” says Sue Griffin, director of research at the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, who watched Tobinick treat several patients. Griffin says that she was skeptical when she first heard about Tobinick’s approach, but having witnessed the effect firsthand, she says, “It was just completely amazing, like nothing I’d ever seen for an Alzheimer’s person.”
Minutes before the treatment, the patient in the case study couldn’t recall the year or which state he was in. Ten minutes after the injection, he answered these questions correctly. As part of a cognitive assessment performed the day before the treatment, the patient was asked to draw a clock face showing a certain time. He sketched a square. Two hours after the injection, he drew a round face with two hands in approximately the correct positions.
…”This is something that’s got to be looked at,” Griffin says. “I hope that scientists will pay attention to this, and the funding agencies will pay attention to this.”
“This is not a cure,” she adds, but if there’s a person who can’t dress or feed himself, is arrogant, mean, and up all night, “and you can take them to the point where they can feed themselves, they’re calmer, attentive, conversational–in other words, you can stand them–that’s great.”
Tobinick thinks suppression of TNF could account for the observed effects.
Etanercept reduces inflammation by blocking a protein called tumor necrosis factor (TNF), which plays an important role in immune responses. TNF occurs naturally in the brain, but studies have found elevated levels in people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
Recent evidence suggests that TNF regulates the activity of synapses, which connect brain cells and enable electrical signals to travel around the brain. In Alzheimer’s patients, an excess of TNF may wreck havoc on those connections, Tobinick says. “Even though the neurons may be working, the connections between the neurons and between the different lobes of the brain may not be working properly.”
Will there be real clinical trials? It isn’t encouraging that
Sonia Fiorenza, a spokeswoman for Amgen, which markets Enbrel, says that the company won’t be sponsoring trials because it doesn’t believe there’s enough evidence that it may be useful in Alzheimer’s disease.
Technorati Tags: Ageing, Alzheimer’s
Does anyone know of a physician who is treating Alzheimer’s with etanercept?
No, I don’t , but just recently heard about this drug having an effect with Alzheimer’s patients. I would love to find someone that would administer it. My father is slipping away right before my eyes and it breaks my heart. He realizes he’s fading and it upsets him, understandably.
I have a younger brother (55 years old) just diagnosed with early-onset alzheimers and we are frantic, willing to try this. My mom also has it (86 years old now) and we have watched her slip away into that black hole - just horrible. Hopefully some clinical trials for this will come out soon, very soon!
Horrible indeed, and like you I hope for clinical trials [keeping in mind that initiation of successful trials wouldn’t be followed by FDA approval for some 10 years from launch, thanks to the 1962 FDA legislation]. Dad slipped into that “black hole” in his late eighties. Mum is 87, and has manifested moderate dementia symptoms for about a decade. Fingers crossed that she doesn’t follow the same descending spiral as did Dad.
I am looking for a physician in the Kansas City area who administers Enbrel injections to Alzheimer’s patients. I have talked with Dr. Tobinick who said there is a physician in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. Has anyone had other information? Thanks so much.
I have never seen medical techniques patented, only devices and drugs. I have had great success with the enbrel injections but obviously wonder about threats of lawsuit from this quack whom stumbled upon a real treatment of compassionate care advanced AD.
Midwest MD
Procedure any anestheseiologist, radiologist, interventional radiologists, pain MD, etc could do. Much less technical risk than any other spine injection or procedure I perform.
I am looking for a physician in the New Jersey/NYC area who administers Enebrel injections to Alzheimer’s patients. My mother in-law is going down hill fast. Thanks
I am looking for a physician in the NYC metro area who administers Enebrel injections to Alzheimer’s patients. My mom is failing rapidly. Has anyone has some information? Thanks . Gary F.
Dr. Gayatri Devi, New York Memory and Healthy Aging Services, 65 East 76th Street, 212-517-6881