Alzheimer’s breakthrough?
Results from a new study on Alzheimer’s disease have produced controversy within the scientific community as some have called the findings a positive and “heartening” step in treating the disease while others are slamming the study’s research team for “cherry picking” data from a study with overall negative results.
Researchers presented their findings this week at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Toronto on a highly anticipated clinical trial for a drug called LMTX, meant to counter the effects of dementia and Alzheimer’s by dissolving a protein build-up in the brain which by some accounts may play a role in the progression of the disease.
The trial results have been described is vastly different terms. It’s either a breakthrough or a failure, depending upon the source.
The drug trial involving 891 patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s took place over 18 months and had patients taking a variety of drugs meant to improve cognitive functioning and slow the progression of Alzheimer’s. Overall, the study’s results showed that LMTX did not have an effect on the progression of dementia as measured by cognitive test scoring, functional test scoring and brain scans. Yet the research team chose to present a key subset of their findings on its own, one in which roughly 15 per cent of the trial group (136 of 891 patients) took only LMTX without the other cognition-enhancing drugs. According to the researchers, the results from that subset were positive along all three cognitive, functional and brain volume measures.
“While the TRx-237- 015 study in 891 subjects failed to meet its co-primary endpoints, clinically meaningful and statistically significant reductions in the rate of disease progression were observed across three key measures in patients who were treated with LMTX® as their only Alzheimer’s disease medication,” reads the report from TauRx Pharmaceuticals, makers of LMTX.
The company’s results have been lauded by some as unprecedented and a “first” in Alzheimer’s treatment while others have been more cautious, some registering criticism of a practice called outcome switching, often associated with a bias in study reporting. “Registered primary outcome measures should form the basis of any conclusion,” says Chris Chambers, professor of cognitive neuroscience at Cardiff University in Wales. “Any subgroup analyses should be strongly caveated, if reported at all.”
Yet some see even the altered results of the LMTX study as promising. In presenting the trial results at the Alzheimer’s conference, Serge Gauthier, Director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Unit at McGill University in Montreal, said “In a field that has been plagued by consistent failures of novel drug candidates in late-stage clinical trials, and where there has been no practical therapeutic advance for over a decade, I am excited about the promise of LMTX as a potential new treatment option for these patients.”
Roughly 564,000 Canadians currently live with dementia, a number that is expected to increase sharply as the country’s current population ages. According to the Alzheimer’s Society of Canada, 937,000 Canadians are projected to be afflicted with dementia by the year 2031.
About The Author /
Jayson is a writer, researcher and educator with a PhD in political philosophy from the University of Ottawa. His interests range from bioethics and innovations in the health sciences to governance, social justice and the history of ideas.
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Will Syl
6:58 PM CST The
cause is a buildup of interstitial fluid the lymphatic system doesn’t
not pickup and return to the bloodstream. It is then forced to follow
the path through the muscle and fascia. The slow way home.
It starts building up it’s a oily substance , that’s your amyloid plaque. Like grease.
It
creates the tangles trying to drain. Fluid dynamics. Follows path of
least resistance when your neck is turned one way . Another when it’s
turned the other. Eventually knotting up it tangles . Gummy sticky
fibers. Which in turn exert pressure on the vascular system reducing
their flow.
It’s a mechanical problem. That can not be addressed by
drugs because they can not over come the hydrostatic pressure and allow
osmosis to allow the drugs into the cells affected. So the drugs just
whiz on by the areas. Same thing is happening with chemo and tumors…
Look up drug delivery and interstitial pressure.
If you think his is hogwash fine. I’m not selling anything.
Try
this. Turn your head to the left, with your left hand . Lightly press
down so that you hold the skin taut . then with your right use your
finger and place it right below your jaw bone. Gently rock them both and
with right finger work it down slowly on that tight muscles and work it
down to the collar bone. You will feel the muscle loosen up , do it a
number of time and your neck is going to feel oily. Because you just
opened up drainage of the interstitial fluid, call it amyloid plaque
mining.
Tinnitus and ALZ are pretty much hand in hand. You will have ringing your ears before you get alz….look the relationship up.
THERE IS YOUR CAUSE AND YOUR CURE !!