(CNN -- Scientists say they "serendipitously" discovered that a drug used to treat a type of cancer quickly reversed Alzheimer's disease in mice.
"It's really exciting," said Maria Carrillo, senior director for medical and scientific relations for the Alzheimer's Association. "They saw very positive and robust behavior effects in the mice."
In the study, researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine gave mice mega-doses of bexarotene, a drug used to treat a type of skin cancer called cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. Within 72 hours, the mice showed dramatic improvements in memory and more than 50% of amyloid plaque -- a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease -- had been removed from the brain.
The study was published Thursday in the journal Science.
Gary Landreth, the lead researcher at Case Western, cautioned that even though his results were impressive in mice, it may turn out not to work in people.
"I want to say as loudly and clearly as possible that this was a study in mice, not in humans," he said. "We've fixed Alzheimer's in mice lots of times, so we need to move forward expeditiously but cautiously."
Mice -- and humans -- with Alzheimer's have high levels of a substance called amyloid beta in their brain. Pathology tests on the mice showed bexarotene lowered the levels of amyloid beta and raised the levels of apolipoprotein E, which helps keep amyloid beta levels low.
Landreth said he hopes to try the drug out in healthy humans within two months, to see if it has the same effect.
Those participating in the trial would be given the standard dose that cancer patients are usually given.
Researchers tested the memories of mice with Alzheimer's both before and after giving them bexarotene. For example, the Alzheimer's mice walked right into a cage where they'd previously been given a painful electrical shock, but after treatment with bexarotene, the mice remembered the shock and refused to enter the cage.
In another test, the scientists put tissue paper in a cage. Normal mice instinctively use tissues in their cage to make a nest, but mice with Alzheimer's can't figure out what to do with the tissues. After treatment with the drug, the Alzheimer's mice made a nest with the paper.
Carrillo said one of the major advantages of bexarotene is that it's already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in humans, which means the researchers can move into human trials sooner than if it were a completely new drug.
The Alzheimer's Association is funding Case Western's next phase of research, which will involve using bexarotene at the levels used on cancer patients, Landreth said. Since the drug does have some side effects -- it can increase cholesterol, for example -- he hopes to use it in even lower levels as the study goes on.
Landreth said his lab had been working on other drugs for Alzheimer's for 10 years when a graduate student, Paige Cramer, decided to try bexarotene, which works on a receptor involved in amyloid beta clearance. Some other drugs that worked in mice were too toxic to use in humans.
"We're really lucky that bexarotene is a great drug with an acceptable safety profile," he said. "This doesn't happen very many times in life'"
Amyloid beta deposits in brain of Alzheimer’s patient.
What’s the News: A drug used to cure skin cancer is also a possible treatment for Alzheimer’s, according to a
new study in
Science
.
The drug not only reduced levels of
amyloid beta—a protein whose elevated levels are a hallmark of the disease—but also reversed cognitive decline. In mice, dramatic effects were evident after just 72 hours.
How the Heck:
bexarotene could enhance expression of a gene called
apoE
.
apoE
activates the immune system to break down amyloid beta, and mutations in the apoE gene are a major risk factor for Alzheimer’s. Turns out the researchers were right. Mice with genetic mutations that make them prone to the disease are the standard model for Alzheimer’s research. When these mice were treated with bexarotene,
macrophages in their brain gobbled up amyloid beta, and the levels of amyloid beta fell by 40% in just 72 hours. Molecular changes are good and all, but an effective drug for Alzheimer’s also has to treat the behavioral symptoms. Bexarotene actually reversed cognitive deficits. The team put treated mice through standard memory tests, including ...
Pritha Chatterjee
10-Feb-2012
New Delhi : Delhi government’s Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS has been awarded a quality assurance stamp by the National Accreditation Board of Hospitals (NABH . This makes it the first neurosciences and psychiatry facility to get this recognition. Almost two years since they first began the application procedure, IHBAS has addressed many of the shortcomings pointed out to them during their inspections, NABH authorities said. NABH is the health services arm of the Quality Council of India (QCI . It provides renewable certification to health facilities, which meet certain standards in patient care services. For mental health institutions, standard NABH guidelines for general hospitals have been modified.
Dr Nimesh Desai, Director, IHBAS, said, “It has been a painstaking process to develop separate ethical guidelines for patients who voluntarily seek treatment, those who are brought by families and homeless mentally ill and those sent to us by judicial orders. For those who are not in a state to make sound decisions, NABH guidelines have been modified.”
The right of a patient to reject treatment, sharing patients’ records and the options available to patients to chose treatment modalities, have been changed for mental health institutions. Requirements like a central sterilisation unit—mandatory for NABH accredited hospitals to sterilise equipment and instruments— have been omitted considering the limited use of instruments in such units.
The autonomous institute under the Delhi government has followed the example of two other mental health institutions — at Vadodara and Ahmedabad — that provide dedicated psychiatry services.
These institutions were accredited by the NABH in November last year.
According to authorities, legal requirements, like the mandatory clearance from Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB for running radiological diagnostics, and licences for using certain narcotic drugs, which were not available with IHBAS earlier, have been procured.
Quality standards for services essential to psychiatric set-ups— like long-term rehabilitation of patients, psychiatry ICU and psychiatry emergency —have been added to the NABH guidelines for mental health institutions.
For neurosurgery and neurology departments, existing guidelines have been incorporated.
Delhi Health Minister Dr A K Walia said, “There has been a conscious change in management of psychiatric patients from custodial to rehabilitation based treatment. IHBAS has tried to address these needs while ensuring the highest quality standards.”
Dr Zainab Zaidi, Assistant Director, NABH, said after 18 months, authorities will conduct another follow up inspection at the institute.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/quality-assurance-stamp-for-delhis-human-behaviour-institute/910342/0
Three weeks ago, the National Institutes of Health announced new rules to govern federally-funded researchers and their financial conflicts of interest. Three years in the making, the policy will affect
over 38,000 scientists at 2000 organizations as the NIH attempts to ensure that biomedical research, paid with taxpayer dollars, remains objective.
But none of these changes might have happened were it not for Dr. Charles Nemeroff.
A renowned chairman of psychiatry at Emory University, Nemeroff was a proponent for drugs sold by GlaxoSmithKline, such as the antidepressant Paxil. While earning hundreds of thousands of dollars jetting around the country and giving talks about Paxil to doctors at fancy restaurants, Nemeroff also managed a multi-million dollar grant from the NIH to research drugs under development by Glaxo.
The ensuing scandal became central to an investigation by Senator Charles Grassley into undisclosed payments from companies to prominent physicians—a practice that puts patients at risk and drives up healthcare costs. As Grassley’s lead investigator on the matter, I had a ringside seat as arguably the most powerful psychiatrist in the country was forced from prominence, eventually leaving Emory.
In This Story:
Intro |
Ghosts From The Past |
A History Of Conflict|
Welcome To The Sunshine State|
Mistakes Were Made|
“Couldn’t Be Better“
At my new job with the Project On Government Oversight (POGO , a government watchdog, I have continued to study the cozy relationships between physicians and corporations. I also observed as Nemeroff left Emory for a new job at the University of Miami which has a medical school operating under financial strain. But why would this school snatch up a physician with such a history?
According to new emails and other materials shown to me, UM officials had serious concerns about Nemeroff’s history of ethical blunders. However, these emails suggest that Nemeroff’s perceived ability to raise money trumped those concerns. At one point while negotiating with UM for a job, Nemeroff even dangled the possibility of a new funder for the school if he was hired. These emails imply that, despite new federal rules, the public must remain vigilant to ensure that medicine is practiced with the highest regard for ethics and patient safety.
Officials at UM did not respond to detailed and repeated questions about the emails, which include communications by UM President Donna Shalala, who is now facing public scrutiny over a separate ethics scandal involving UM’s football program.
By Paul Thacker.
Durgesh Nandan Jha
9-FEB-2012
NEW DELHI : May 28, 2009: Caught in a compromising position, daughter kills mother in Paschim Vihar.
June 8, 2011: Man stabs his 70-year-old father in Bhogal after an argument over selling land and not supporting him against his wife, who was allegedly having an affair.
July 8, 2011: Man murders his father in Zamrudpur area of Greater Kailash because he was spending a fortune on a woman with whom he allegedly had a relationship.
Feb 7, 2012: Man batters his father to death, injures mother in Krishna Nagar.
Domestic violence is no more limited to marital discord and torture of women at the hands of their husbands and in-laws. Violence is now permeating into relationships as varied as between father and son, mother and daughter.
Psychiatrists say Tuesday's case where a man battered his 58-year-old father to death at their Krishna Nagar home, caring little even for his mother's intervention, should be taken as a wake-up call. Frequent misbehaviour, physical abuse, tendency to inflict injuries on oneself and substance abuse must not be tolerated and one should contact a psychiatrist or the family physician to explore possibilities of an underlying mental illness or behavioral disorder, which are treatable, they said.
"Violence against family members, including parents is increasing. We get two to three such cases every day. Most often, it is triggered by an untreated mental illness or stress which manifests in aggression against close members of the family," said Dr Nimesh Desai, director, Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS . He said fall in family values has added to the problem.
Dr Jitendra Nagpal, another psychiatrist, said, "Mental illness and issues related to it need to be taken seriously. One must consult a doctor if a person is facing relationship woes or work-related stress, a common problem particularly in big cities, which is causing depression or aggression. Mental disorders are a growing health concern which affect more than 7% of the total population in the country. Such disorders are present in many more people in the form of sub-clinical emotional and behavioral health issues which can manifest as aggressive behaviour if ignored for too long," Nagpal said. He said the stigma attached to mental illness must be done away with.
Dr Nand Kumar, additional professor of psychiatry at All India Institute of Medical Sciences ( AIIMS , said treatment is available for most mental health issues. "Many people cannot control their impulses. It is a kind of mental disorder and is treated with mood stabilizers. We give anti-psychotic drugs to patients, who complain about abnormal belief, for instance, someone who thinks his father doesn't love him as much as he loves his other children," he said.
He said that in children deviant behaviour, frustration and depression have been observed. "With proper counselling it can be treated. But if ignored, it can turn into a major health issue," Kumar said.
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-02-09/delhi/31041232_1_mental-illness-man-batters-kind-of-mental-disorder
No comments:
Post a Comment