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Primer on Alzheimer's Research

by Benjamin W. Pearce

Left unchecked, sufferers of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias are expected to increase are expected to increase in epidemic proportions. There is no known cure, and little is understood definitively about the cause of Alzheimer's disease, which afflicts about 4 million Americans. This number is expected to increase to a staggering 14 million people in the next 50 years. With the global population aging, "we have an imminent worldwide epidemic," warns Edward Truschke, president of the Alzheimer's Association. By 2050, 45 million people worldwide may have Alzheimer's, a toll rivaling cancer, said Robert Katzman of the University of California at San Diego.

Battling Alzheimer's disease is going to be contingent upon identifying symptoms very early, before the disease can gain a foothold in the brain. Now that scientists have successfully mapped and identified human DNA, it may facilitate the identification of those who may be more susceptible to the disease later in life. Elan Pharmaceuticals have been experimenting with a new vaccine that may be able to delay Alzheimer's disease. In clinical trials, the vaccine, which is a synthetic version of a protein called beta amyloid, appears to hold some promise. In Alzheimer's patients, plaques containing beta amyloid build up in the brain, leading some scientists to believe that these plaques contribute to the loss of memory and personality associated with the disease. The vaccine triggers an immune response which when tested on mice cleared the amyloid plaques from their brains. Scientists caution, however that what may work on mice may not necessarily be effective on humans, and since there has been no definitive cause established for Alzheimer's disease, the efficacy of this treatment may be to only delay progression of the disease. But for many Americans and their families, even some benefit would enable them to live independently longer.

Other researchers say plaque-oriented scientists are looking at the wrong thing. They believe that tangled fibers inside nerve cells are the cause of the disease. Whatever the case, it is clear that this million-piece puzzle is slowly coming together. There are more scientific research papers being published now than ever before, some 2,000 last year alone. The disease is becoming so widespread and costly that the research attention is well deserved. According to the Alzheimer's Association, the disease will cost the nation at least $100 billion a year, including $26 billion in workplace productivity loss to caregiver duties. Half of all persons who live in nursing homes suffer from Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. In response, the federal government will spend half a billion dollars on Alzheimer's research this year. With this kind of commitment to research, slowly the pieces of the puzzle may begin to fall into place, but considering the immense complexity of the disease, and the difficulty of diagnosis, the puzzle may not materialize quickly enough for millions of Americans and their families before the disease takes a hold of them.

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