pbt on "a current affair" tonight... TO ROCKET...

pbt on "a current affair" tonight... TO ROCKET TOMORROW........

http://www.aca.ninemsn.com.au/stories/1732.asp
Alzheimer's disease: solving the puzzle
21 July 2004

Alzheimer's disease is gradually eating at the fabric of 150,000 Australian families. The impact of the condition is both cruel and frightening, particularly for the sufferer's loved ones. But as ACA reports, researchers have discovered a treatment to target the cause of disorder rather than the symptoms.

For Dr Ashley Bush and colleague Dr Rob Cherney, determining the cause of Alzheimer's was the first step in their quest to find a cure. In their search for answers, the pair found that Alzheimer brain tissue is speckled with abnormal "blobs" of a naturally occurring protein called beta amyloid.

Initially, it was thought the clusters or plaques themselves somehow caused the disease but the Australian scientists looked even further. What they found was a high concentration of zinc within the regions of the plaques. They also found high levels of another metal in the body, copper.

Dr Bush and his team applied classic high school chemistry to theorise that the extreme concentrations of copper were in fact reacting with the protein to form a third lethal substance.

"The damage in Alzheimer's disease is actually caused by the invisible hydrogen peroxide generation that goes on in the background and can't be seen down the microscope," explains Dr Bush.

Hydrogen peroxide is in fact, the active ingredient in bleach.

It's estimated that for every one person with Alzheimer's, three others closest to them suffer a similar decline in productivity and quality of life, which is a ticking time bomb.

"By the age of 50, almost 50 percent of people have already got evidence of Alzheimer's disease in their brains," says Dr Bush. "By the age of 80, almost 100 percent of people have got the pathology of Alzheimer's in their brain. So if you live long enough, you will get evidence of the damage occurring."

Bearing in mind we are living longer, by the year 2030, it's predicted we'll be able to fill a town the size of Geelong entirely with Alzheimer's sufferers. Dr Bush calls it the social meteorite because scientists can see it coming.

But, if we've got any hope of escaping this meteorite, Bush and his team must prove that what's good for mice is also good for man through breeding mice which will develop Alzheimer's. Following this research, Bush and his team believe the drug Cliocwinol, or a variant, is the key. The drug was used in the 1970s to treat diarrhoea and skin irritations.

"The available drugs had just been dealing with the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease rather than the underlying cause of it," says Dr Bush. "We think we've got the first drug that is actually dealing with the underlying biochemistry and showing inhibition of it and perhaps even the reversal of it [Alzheimer's]."

Extensive human trials are slated for the US and the UK next year. Australia's population is too small to cater for something so big, but the team did treat 36 patients in a limited trial here recently and Dr Bush and Dr Cherney are even more excited.

The first sign of Alzheimer's is memory loss. Now, in an era where we're developing new drugs that can do something about the underlying damage to the brain, it's important to identify when this pathology commences as soon as possible.

Dr Bush and Dr Cherney urge people to speak to their GPs if they're displaying any early symptoms, with the first of these drugs not likely to be available for the next three years.