WVU: Drug May Restore Memory: Could Help Those With Alzheimer’s; Tests Begin Soon
By Eric Bowen, The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.
Dec. 5–A drug originally created to fight cancer may help restore memory and create new connections between brain cells in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other brain diseases, scientists at the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute announced Tuesday.
BRNI Scientific Director Daniel Alkon said his team of researchers discovered that the drug can help rebuild the networks between brain cells. The research, done in mice, showed that the treatment helps restore memory and can protect brain cells from dying.
Alkon said that if the same effect is shown in humans, it could lead to promising treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, strokes, brain trauma and possibly some forms of mental retardation.
“We think this is a first, and actually represents a new direction for treating brain disease,” Alkon said. “It could have a dramatic impact on people’s lives.”
The drug that the BRNI scientists used to do the research was Bryostatin, which was originally developed to treat cancer, Alkon said. But it has been shown to be more effective in treating memory loss.
Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease often have loss of brain cells and connections between cells, Alkon said. The drug does not prevent the loss of brain cells entirely, but it helps create new brain cell networks that are crucial to forming and retaining memories.
The treatments were shown to increase survival rates among mice that were genetically altered to have human Alzheimer’s disease genes.
The drug was also shown to help healthy animals improve their memory, Alkon said. But he said that BRNI is focusing more on research to help treat diseases, rather than as a brain-booster.
Alkon said that he plans to start clinical trials of Bryostatin on Alzheimer’s patients within three months. The trials will be in West Virginia, and most likely with patients from the Morgantown area. General treatments would take longer, and would require partnering with a drug company to produce and market the drug.
“If it looks as good in people as it does in animal models … I expect it to go quickly,” Alkon said. “I would love to see this have an impact on people within a few years.”
The Bryostatin research done by Alkon and his team is important for the future of the Neurosciences Institute, said Mark Cochran, chief executive officer and executive director.
BRNI is the only nonprofit institute dedicated to studying human memory and memory diseases, according to a news release. It was founded by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, DW.Va., in memory of his mother, Blanchette Rockefeller, who died of Alzheimer’s disease.
The researchers patented the new technology, and now can license it to drug companies or other commercial entities, Cochran said. That would bring in money that could be used to do further research on treatments for memory diseases.
He said that research of this type is expensive and sometimes doesn’t lead to treatments for disease. But when promising treatments are created, it helps further the mission of the Institute.
“This kind of thing is payback,” Cochran said. “We want to be sure that, like a business, we return to our investors some return. It could be financial. It could be some benefit to the economy. It could be of some health benefit to patients here in West Virginia. To me, that’s the deal.”
—–
To see more of The Dominion Post or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dominionpost.com/.
Copyright (c) 2007, The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.