Cure or preventions for Alzheimer's disease

In broad general terms, the main strategies for new AD drug treatments are:

Antibodies
Numerous anti-amyloid antibodies are in clinical development and are designed to reduce brain amyloid burden.

Secretase Inhibitors
Using drugs to decrease the amyloid burden by inhibiting the enzymes responsible for the generation of the A-beta peptide from its precursor protein APP.

Targeting Amyloid Aggregation
Another strategy has been to test drugs that block the downstream consolidation of soluble A-beta oligomers into insoluble aggregates and plaques.

Alternatively, drugs might preventing interaction between A-beta with metals in the synapse which leads to the formation of small toxic oligomers of A-beta that inhibit neurotransmission.
 
One of the things I'm doing as my age advances is to reorganize my life so I live more in the present and less in the future.

Back on topic, Alzheimer's cannot be cured or even reliably prevented, but new ways have been discovered for dealing with it. One of the phenomena of the post-Gutenberg era is that we all overlearn the skill of reading. It's one of the last things to go as our minds deteriorate. People who can't talk can still read and write.

This knowledge has been used to greatly improve the lives of Alzheimer's patients. One lady drove her father to his doctor's office every week. Once they were in the car, every five minutes he asked, "Where are we going?" The next week she handed him a note saying, "We're going to see Dr. Jones on 4th Street. He's been your doctor for 25 years and we've been going to see him every Tuesday since last February." He read the note a couple of times, folded it up, and never asked again.

Another lady was distraught because her mother didn't recognize her. "You're not my Susan. My Susan is young and beautiful." (The insult didn't do much for her mood either.) So she found an old photo of herself and mounted it on a card next to a current photo. Under the old one was the caption, "This is your daughter, Susan, 25 years ago," and under the new one she wrote, "And this is your daughter, Susan, today." The mother looked at the two pictures, then back at the daughter, over and over for about ten minutes. Then she smiled, patted her hand, and said, "My dear Susan. You're just as beautiful as ever."

I have a friend who works with Alzheimer's patients and I gave her the original article on this. (I guess people in the medical profession don't have time to read Parade magazine. ;)) Next time I saw her she practically cried, she was so happy to have been given that information.

Music often breaks through to old people, since we remember songs in a slightly different section of the brain. Start playing a song from their youth and they'll suddenly sing along without missing a lyric. People who play an instrument can often still play.

Another thing I'm doing these days is writing down my whole life, adding events as they come to mind. Perhaps some day I'll be glad that I provided myself with a link to my own past.

When my mother called my wife (whom she had known for 20 years) by my ex-wife's name (whom none of us had seen for 30 years) it was a real sad day. We didn't know that communicating with her in writing might have worked better.
 
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