A very interesting article has come out showing great results on reversing symptoms of Alzheimer's. I did some "web" searching and found the actual study so I believe it's a real breakthrough...let's pray our doctors will be willing to try this on our loved ones.

Please read:

From: Newsmax Health

Subject: Report: Alzheimer's Symptoms Reversed in Minutes

Breaking from Newsmax.com

Extraordinary Breakthrough — Alzheimer’s Symptoms Reversed in Minutes

An extraordinary new scientific study, which for the first time documents marked improvement in Alzheimer’s disease within minutes of administration of a therapeutic molecule, has just been published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation.

This new study highlights the importance of certain soluble proteins, called cytokines, in Alzheimer’s disease. The study focuses on one of these cytokines, tumor necrosis factor-alpha(TNF), a critical component of the brain’s immune system. Normally, TNF finely regulates the transmission of neural impulses in the brain. The authors hypothesized that elevated levels of TNF in Alzheimer’s disease interfere with this regulation. To reduce elevated TNF, the authors gave patients an injection of an anti-TNF therapeutic called etanercept. Excess TNF-alpha has been documented in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with Alzheimer’s.

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.

Editor's Note: Doctor: Save Your Brain from Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s
and Worse . . .

The use of anti-TNF therapeutics as a new treatment choice for many diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and potentially even Alzheimer’s, was recently chosen as one of the top 10 health stories of 2007 by the Harvard Health Letter.

Similarly, the Neurotechnology Industry Organization has recently selected new treatment targets revealed by neuroimmunology (such as excess TNF) as one of the top 10 Neuroscience Trends of 2007. And the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives has chosen the pilot study using perispinal etanercept for Alzheimer’s for inclusion and discussion in their 2007 Progress Report on Brain Research.

The lead author of the study, Edward Tobinick M.D., is an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of California , Los Angeles and director of the Institute for Neurological Research, a private medical group in Los Angeles . Hyman Gross, M.D., clinical professor of neurology at the University of Southern California , was co-author.

The study is accompanied by an extensive commentary by Sue Griffin, Ph.D., director of research at the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in Little Rock and at the Geriatric Research and Clinical Center at the VA Hospital in Little Rock, who along with Robert Mrak, M.D., chairman of pathology at University of Toledo Medical School, are editors-in-chief of the Journal of Neuroinflammation.

Griffin and Mrak are pioneers in the field of neuroinflammation. Griffin published a landmark study in 1989 describing the association of cytokine overexpression in the brain and Alzheimer’s disease. Her research helped pave the way for the findings of the present study. Griffin has recently been selected for membership in the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, a nonprofit organization of more than 200 leading neuroscientists, including ten Nobel laureates.

“It is unprecedented that we can see cognitive and behavioral improvement in a patient with established dementia within minutes of therapeutic intervention,” said Griffin . “It is imperative that the medical and scientific communities immediately undertake to further investigate and characterize the physiologic mechanisms involved. This gives all of us in Alzheimer’s research a tremendous new clue about new avenues of research, which is so exciting and so needed in the field of Alzheimer’s. Even though this report predominantly discusses a single patient, it is of significant scientific interest because of the potential insight it may give into the processes involved in the brain dysfunction of Alzheimer’s.”

While the article discusses one patient, many other patients with mild to severe

Alzheimer’s received the treatment and all have shown sustained and marked improvement.

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,” are available on the Web site of the Journal of Neuroinflammation, at http://www.jneuroinflammation.com.

Hi Bobcat,

I just wrote a long post but forgot to say that you were reading my mind! Just this morning, I was thinking about "Flower's for Algernon" and was thinking that this sound a lot like that, I hope and pray it's not!

Thanks, Felicia

Well, today we went to Mom's Neurologist and I asked her what she thought about the new study with Enbrel. To my surprise, she wasn't discouraging at all. She said it's very hopeful and exciting, but also that it was a small study so they need to do more. She also thinks that it MAY be released sometime this year if all goes well. I didn't tell our Doctor about my plans to go to UCLA, only because I didn't want to insult her. I did read on another forum somewhere (I've been researching so much I don't remember where it was)about the cost at UCLA. They wrote: $300 Evaluation $650 Physical Exam
and for the treatment, approx $600 to administer the injection and $250 for the drug. That would be over $800 a week for the injections! (This is all hearsay) Well, we may try the first one and see what happens, and go from there. If the drug is approved this year, then I imagine insurance may pay for it eventually. If we could hold off with monthly injections till it's covered, that would be great.

Thanks for listening and for your input and advice.

Felicia

I hope you will keep us will keep us informed about this one, felicia. It sounds painful.

Keeping my fingers crossed. Have you ever read Flowers for Algernon? This is so hopeful it's frightening.

Hi Bobcat,

I am very wary of false hopes also. I have been to the GNC (Vitamin/Natural Herbs) store and have bought many things that will supposedly help, hoping something is REAL...but alas, Mom still is getting worse as time goes on. This new one caught my eye though, because I searched and found the actual case study and everything seems to be documented well and on the up and up. And I wasn't able to find anything discrediting it...yet! I happen to live in the Los Angeles area, which is where the Doctor who did the study practices (UCLA). I have gone as far as making an appt for my Mom to have her assessment done by him, and to try the treatment. But, as suspected, insurance will not cover it and it is expensive...although they wouldn't reveal the cost to me over the phone which gives me cause for concern. In the meantime, I have set up an appt with our regular neurologist this Wed to ask her what she thinks. Unless I hear that it somehow has made the patients worse, we will probably go through with it at "Almost" any cost, and see how Mom does. The study is so new that nothing has been said about how the patients have done once the treatments stop, and that is what I hope to discuss at UCLA. The appt is a week from this Wed and I will let everyone know what we find out.

Thanks for your response,

Felicia

I read this press release elsewhere earlier today. There is a lot of "buzz" about it. Only time will tell if it is as effective as the researchers hope. Here's hoping...

Hi, felicia, I notice you news is not getting much response. I think it may be because there has been manny false hopes broadcast and many are a bit gunshy.

I do hope this offers something real. That would be terrific.