Will there ever be a cure for Alzheimer's disease?

Question

any current ongoing research pointing us closer to the answer?

Answer 1

The research done with mice and spinal cord injury is fascinating, yet does not touch the neural networks involved in memory and cognition, only motor function. Much research has gone into embryonic stem cell research which could hopefully reverse the effects that the plaques have already caused on the brain. Even more interesting work is being done in prevention. Like many illnesses it is easier to treat if it never happens and like many illnesses it seems that exercise can help prevent the disease. With the aging population I believe the interest in a cure and possibly vaccines for prevention may be on the way soon.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

I pray every day that there will be a cure. I know that there are so many more diseases out there that need a cure too, but this is an excruciatingly slow way to watch a loved one die. My great grandmother died on June 16th after a 12 year battle with the disease, and it was pure hell for all of us. From what I've heard, there is some research working on finding the causes, and so far, only genetics are a sure bet, and there's no way to tell if someone has the disease definately without an autopsy. Some brain scans can show signs, but I don't think they've gotten far enough to be accurate as a diagnosing means.

This disease is cruel and devestating... I hope you or someone you love doesn't have this thing... it's almost demonic in its ruthlessness.

Answer 4

We already know of some drugs that slow the onset of Alzheimer's and will likely nail these down better in the next couple of decades. Prevention depends on cause. Just because there's a genetic relationship it doesn't mean that we can't treat, or even cure, the disease. For example, there are genes that predispose people to salt-sensitive hypertension but it doesn't make any difference it you eat very little salt (87% of salt is added in processing, cooking or at the table). The fact that there's a gene you can associate with the disease doesn't make it a true genetic disorder. By that definition every disease would be genetic. Example: potatos never get hypertension and we never get potato beetle - so you could say both diseases are genetic but that is a trival definition. A true genetic disorder is one that affects every person with that disease the same way. That's not the same as a genetic pre-disposition. The long and short of it is that the genetic relation isn't going to prevent us from developing drugs or other therapies to better treat or delay or prevent the onset Alzheimer's. it is much more likely than not that effective therapies will be developed over the next few decades.

Answer 5

No there won't be. Don't get me wrong I'm not trying to brin gnayone down here, but that's not the way this or most other countries work. There is no money in a cure for Alzheimer's, only in it's treatment. Argue with me all you like, bt do you really think that after cracking the human genome, cloning an animal, traveling to the moon and Mars, and being able to make food as delicious as twinkies, that we can't find cures for the common cold, HIV, AIDS, or Alzheimer's?

Answer 6

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RE:
Will there ever be a cure for Alzheimer's disease?
any current ongoing research pointing us closer to the answer?

Answer 7

There is currently no cure for Alzheimer's disease, although there are drugs which offer symptomatic benefit, specifically with respect to short-term memory impairment.
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Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibition was thought to be important because there is selective loss of forebrain cholinergic neurons as a result of Alzheimer's. AChE-inhibitors reduce the rate at which acetylcholine (ACh) is broken down and hence increase the concentration of ACh in the brain (combatting the loss of ACh caused by the death of the cholinergin neurons). Acetylcholinesterase-inhibitors seemed to modestly moderate symptoms but do not prevent disease progression including cell death.

Examples include:

* tacrine - no longer clinically used
* donepezil - (marketed as Aricept)
* galantamine - (marketed as Razadyne, formerly Reminyl)
* rivastigmine - (marketed as Exelon)

Recently, a controversy has erupted about cholinesterase inhibitors because a study in the respected medical journal The Lancet has suggested they are ineffective.[6] The pharmaceutical companies, but also many independent clinicians, dispute the findings of the study, based on methodologic grounds.
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NMDA antagonists

Recent evidence of the involvement of glutamatergic neuronal excitotoxicity in the aetiology of Alzheimer's disease led to the development and introduction of memantine. Memantine is a novel NMDA receptor antagonist, and has been shown to be moderately clinically efficacious.

Answer 8

There is a lot of research being done into Alzheimers and Parkinsons diseases but it is a diffcult topic because a lot of hope has been placed in embrionic stem cell based therapies to try to repair the damaged neuro connections in the brains of sufferers.
Apparently a research group has managed to repair the spines of paralysed mice using stem cells so this type of research is likely to eventually produce breakthroughs in treatment for a variety of ailments (including alzheimers) but there's a lot of debate about whether this use of stem cells in this way is ethical because from a pro-life perspective you are killing potential lifeforms to save others. I am not trying to take a side on that argument here though.

Answer 9

First they have to figure out what causes it. All the medicines available now only treat the symptoms and no one knows how the symptoms are related to each other (cause/effect). If A causes B and you remove A, you won't have B. But in Alzheimer's there's all kinds of things, like plaque build up and neuron tangles and cognitive changes etc and the doctors need to figure out which is the chicken and which is the egg.

Answer 10

Alzheimers is caused by renegade proteins called prions. These things are notoriously hard to eradicate because they're not really alive, but they can replicate and gum up all the cellular machinery in cells. Any cure will probably involve gene therapy and/or nanotechnology and those technologies are still in their infant stages. I might expect something in the next 50 years though.