Beta Amyloid Plummets with a New Drug
To test this idea, mice with advanced amyloid pathology were treated for two weeks with fasudil, a drug that targets Dkk1. The result was a dramatic reduction in amyloid. According to senior study author Dr. Richard Killick, "We show that a vicious positive feedback loop exists in which beta-amyloid drives its own production. We think once this feedback loop gets out of control it is too late for drugs which target beta-amyloid to be effective. This could explain why so many Alzheimer's drug trials have failed. "We have convincingly shown fasudil can protect synapses and memory in animal models of Alzheimer's, and at the same time reduces the amount of beta-amyloid in the brain." One of Dr. Killick’s fellow authors, Professor Dag Aarsland, is a world-renowned scientist in the field of neurodegenerative disease. He added, "As well as being a safe drug, fasudil appears to enter the brain in sufficient quantity to potentially be an effective treatment against beta-amyloid." Fasudil is not approved for use in the US or Europe, but it does have approval as a dilator of blood vessels and a neuroprotective agent in China and Japan. In these countries it’s used in critical care settings such as after a stroke. US researchers wrote in 2009, as a result of their rodent study, that fasudil had potential "as a cognitive enhancer in humans that have age or neurodegenerative-related memory dysfunction." The Kings College group are now hoping to push ahead with the next stage -- a human clinical trial to test whether the drug clears away amyloid and restores cognition in early Alzheimer's disease patients. I won’t hold my breath...Not Wild about the Brain Plaque Theory
As we’ve written before in this publication, the doctors who are enjoying the most success in treating dementia patients have largely abandoned the brain plaque theory. The plaques give every sign of being the brain’s protective reaction against inflammation. They’re an effect, not a cause, of the illness that’s eating up brain cells – the causes most likely being poor sleep (which prevents elimination of brain waste), toxins, chronic infections, allergies and all the other multiple causes of inflammation. This theory hasn’t been proven either, but at least it has the virtue of leading to clinical protocols that do reverse memory loss. And that makes them an improvement over the plaque-busting drugs. I hope fasudil does work and opens up a new way of treating dementia, but meanwhile there are proven ways you can use right now.