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Alzheimer's Disease Breakthrough
Reducing Neuroinflammation
Perhaps one of the areas of greatest concern to my patients as they age is their memory and brain health. It makes sense that an Age Management Medicine program would proactively address brain health and memory since quality of life is reduced if your memory fails you.
A recent scientific breakthrough in the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease provides clinical evidence that there is a rapidly reversible cause of the memory related problems seen in Alzheimer' Disease. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia among older people and initially involves the parts of the brain that control thought, memory, and language. The name of the inflammation producing substance in the brain which is believed to be the cause of Alzheimer's Disease is called Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha (TNF-alpha). This is fascinating news since it had always been believed that the damage caused by Alzheimer's Disease to the brain was irreversible. The fact that treatment with a medication called etanercept quickly reversed some of the memory problems in patients with Alzheimer's demonstrates the role that TNF alpha plays in the disease. This information is worthy of further investigation and will lead to a better understanding of the disease as well as its prevention and treatment. These are exciting times for the treatment of neuroinflammation or inflammation found in the brain leading to a chronic debilitating disease such as Alzheimer's Disease.
The cutting edge scientific study which for the first time documents marked improvement in Alzheimer's disease within minutes of administration of a therapeutic molecule, etanercept, has recently been published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation. The new study, entitled "Rapid cognitive improvement in Alzheimer's disease following perispinal etanercept administration," and the accompanying commentary, entitled "Perispinal etanercept: Potential as an Alzheimer's therapeutic," This study has changed our understanding of Alzheimer's Disease and once again given credit to the underlying theory that inflammation plays a role in chronic diseases such as this one.