Reversal Of Alzheimer's Symptoms Within Minutes In Human Study

An exciting scientific study has just been published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation which demonstrates improvement within minutes following the (off-label) delivery of a drug approved to treat a number of immune-mediated disorders.

Alzheimer's (wikipedia link) disease is a form of dementia characterized by progressive cognitive deterioration, ultimately leading to death. I lost my grandfather to this killer back in 1999. It's a terrible way to go, not so much for the victim as it is for the people around them. Loved ones are stolen away a little bit at a time, over the course of years. They can remain physically strong and appear outwardly hale and hearty as the person they were slowly slips away into amnesia. It steals who they are, as they lose everything, even language. I share that bit of personal history with the other DJ folks here so that you can really understand how excited I am at this bit of science news. Science Daily (article) has a report about a new study just published about an Alzheimer's treatment. As I mentioned in the intro, this treatment seems to be effective in minutes. I try not to get too excited about such discoveries. Many of them don't pan out. but if this can be replicated by others, it will be revolutionary, not just as a treatment, but as an opening to a whole new avenue of treatments. The Science News story linked above does a better job of explaining the actual treatment than I ever could, but the key quote is:

The new study documents a dramatic and unprecedented therapeutic effect in an Alzheimer’s patient: improvement within minutes following delivery of perispinal etanercept, which is etanercept given by injection in the spine. Etanercept (trade name Enbrel) binds and inactivates excess TNF. Etanercept is FDA approved to treat a number of immune-mediated disorders and is used off label in the study.

Let's all hope this one turns out to be the real thing.