July 9th, 2008
Does Prana offer real Alzheimer's hope or head fake?
When I wrote about Alzheimer’s Disease last month I focused on compounds that break up the Amyloid plaques which cause the disease.
The plaques mostly consist of a peptide of amino acids called Amyloid Beta, which is also implicated in other dementias.
One drug failed, but offered glimpses of which plaques may be dangerous and which less so. Another offered a tantalizing glimpse into links between Alzheimer’s and heart disease.
Now we have another approach, headlining the next issue of Neuron, a substance called PBT2. It transports ions of copper and zinc across the blood-brain barrier, which then break up the plaques.
The substance is already being pitched in some medical symposia as a way to “clear your head.”
So far there are two very encouraging signs. It works in mouse models, reducing symptoms, and it seems to be well tolerated by the body.
While the company behind PBT2, Prana Biotechnology, is Australian, co-founding scientist Dr. Rudolph Tanzi (above) teaches at Harvard and maintains laboratories at Massachusetts General. Much of his work involves finding genetic markers for Alzheimer’s.
The urgency against Alzheimer’s is not just about curing people. Fact is the cost of caring for an Alzheimer’s patient is enormous, half of those over 90 have it, so the disease could easily break the health care system if we can’t deal with it before my old age.
And I am doing what I can to reach that old age. I’m hoping that when I get there I’ll remember why.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist since 1978, and has covered technology since 1982. He launched the Interactive Age Daily, the first daily coverage of the Internet to launch with a magazine, in September 1994. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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