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Chemical clears Alzheimer's protein and restores memory in mice

nature.com

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Re: Chemical clears Alzheimer's protein and restores memory in mice

#31

Post by jerf »

wiremine wrote: post #9
plg wrote: post #6

it's a great day for mouse health

You say that tongue in cheek, but as a non-scientist, I've always wondered how much "mouse science" ultimately translates to humans. My guess is it's very low, but knowing a percentage would help me better understand how to proceed reports like this.

If it were that low, we would not use them as models.

Also bear in mind that mouse models are merely part of a large set of animal models that we use: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_model_organisms#Verteb...

Re: Chemical clears Alzheimer's protein and restores memory in mice

#32

Post by 4ad »

kilburn wrote: post #28
termain wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Edit: Ok, ok, I totally screwed that up. Damnit. Sorry, everyone. Grams aren't kilograms. The freaking base unit shouldn't have a prefix. 2000mg/kg = 2, right? Like 2kg of medicine for every one kg of body mass? That seems impossible to consume. Even 0.1 kg/kg seems really, really high. Or is mg here used for micrograms rather than milligrams? So it's actually 2000 μg/kg.

Wrong. 2000mg/Kg = 2g/Kg, two grams of the chemical per kilogram (1000g) of the subject. To give you an idea, that's 160g of chemical for an 80Kg human. Quite a lot, but nowhere near impossible to consume...

Actually it's just something between 0.8g and 8g, 160g is a safe limit, not the therapeutic dose.

Re: Chemical clears Alzheimer's protein and restores memory in mice

#33

Post by RobertoG »

carbocation wrote: post #19
wrong_internet wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure Alzheimer's isn't good for you, either. I'd take any health risks over dementia, personally, and I'm sure most would, too. Looking forward to the FDA blocking this on "safety" grounds.

It's amazing to me that people are willing to experiment with an unapproved chemical that provides no proven benefit in humans, yet aren't willing to use human-proven therapies with known benefits such as statins.

Maybe they are not the same people?

Re: Chemical clears Alzheimer's protein and restores memory in mice

#34

Post by Udik »

carbocation wrote: post #19
wrong_internet wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure Alzheimer's isn't good for you, either. I'd take any health risks over dementia, personally, and I'm sure most would, too. Looking forward to the FDA blocking this on "safety" grounds.

It's amazing to me that people are willing to experiment with an unapproved chemical that provides no proven benefit in humans, yet aren't willing to use human-proven therapies with known benefits such as statins.

Well, it's not for a sore knee. Is there anything more unapproved than an irreversible disease that destroys your mind in the space of a few years? It's not like cancer, from which you might be cured, or at least with which you can have a meaningful life until your eventual death. It is a slow motion process of erasure that is well on its way at the moment of the first diagnosis. Taking the wrong medicine could shorten your brain's life of how much, a year perhaps? Still worth trying.

Re: Chemical clears Alzheimer's protein and restores memory in mice

#35

Post by Zigurd »

carbocation wrote: post #19
wrong_internet wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure Alzheimer's isn't good for you, either. I'd take any health risks over dementia, personally, and I'm sure most would, too. Looking forward to the FDA blocking this on "safety" grounds.

It's amazing to me that people are willing to experiment with an unapproved chemical that provides no proven benefit in humans, yet aren't willing to use human-proven therapies with known benefits such as statins.

Many people are quite cynical about Big Pharma

Re: Chemical clears Alzheimer's protein and restores memory in mice

#36

Post by tdees40 »

nashashmi wrote: post #15

I am having an epiphany. Maybe this "Alzheimer protein" is supposed to be the brain's defenses to something much worse. Maybe this protein is a "reaction" similar to skin rashes when it absorbs poison ivy's urisol. If Alzheimer was simply a deficiency of nutrients, I wouldn't think this way, but if it really is a protein that "can be cleared", why did it get there in the first place?

There's a growing body of evidence that Alzheimer's is really just "Type 3 Diabetes":

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2769828/

Re: Chemical clears Alzheimer's protein and restores memory in mice

#37

Post by jupp0r »

nashashmi wrote: post #15

I am having an epiphany. Maybe this "Alzheimer protein" is supposed to be the brain's defenses to something much worse. Maybe this protein is a "reaction" similar to skin rashes when it absorbs poison ivy's urisol. If Alzheimer was simply a deficiency of nutrients, I wouldn't think this way, but if it really is a protein that "can be cleared", why did it get there in the first place?

I'm not an expert, but human lifespans have only risen to relevant heights very recently. It's simply not enough time for it for evolution to kick in.

Re: Chemical clears Alzheimer's protein and restores memory in mice

#38

Post by tinco »

nashashmi wrote: post #15

I am having an epiphany. Maybe this "Alzheimer protein" is supposed to be the brain's defenses to something much worse. Maybe this protein is a "reaction" similar to skin rashes when it absorbs poison ivy's urisol. If Alzheimer was simply a deficiency of nutrients, I wouldn't think this way, but if it really is a protein that "can be cleared", why did it get there in the first place?

What I understood from the PopSci that passes HN every now and then is that the 'Alzheimer protein' is just some normal protein that the brain makes during normal operation every day. In your sleep the brain contracts and 'flushes it out' somehow, but over the years the protein accrues and you suffer dementia. Obviously that's super oversimplified and probably wrong, my source being skimmed over PopSci and all.

Since dementia is a disease that happens at a late age, there doesn't need to be a reason why it is there. It happens a long time after reproduction, so its effect on evolution is minimal, worse it could even be evolved as a mechanism to curb older specimens in the species.

Re: Chemical clears Alzheimer's protein and restores memory in mice

#39

Post by nolok »

wrong_internet wrote: post #14
andy_ppp wrote: post #2

Wow, you can buy some EPPS (the chemical in the article) here for £39.20? http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/product/sigma/54465?lang... Looks interesting research but I'm sure this stuff probably can't be that good for you!

Pretty sure Alzheimer's isn't good for you, either. I'd take any health risks over dementia, personally, and I'm sure most would, too. Looking forward to the FDA blocking this on "safety" grounds.

Most people would take "be at risk of health problem" against "not lose your mind". The question (and the effect in both sides) are still worth asking

Re: Chemical clears Alzheimer's protein and restores memory in mice

#40

Post by LordKano »

carbocation wrote: post #19
wrong_internet wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure Alzheimer's isn't good for you, either. I'd take any health risks over dementia, personally, and I'm sure most would, too. Looking forward to the FDA blocking this on "safety" grounds.

It's amazing to me that people are willing to experiment with an unapproved chemical that provides no proven benefit in humans, yet aren't willing to use human-proven therapies with known benefits such as statins.

If I was slowly losing my mind, I'd even try experimental drugs that came with a 20% chance of sudden death.

There's not much worse than having your mind die while your body is still alive.

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