Progress in Immunotherapy for Alzheimer’s is Slow
Fri, April 23, 2010 at 02:00AM We’ve been hearing for a couple of years about the use of injections of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) for preventing, or slowing, the inevitable progress of Alzheimer’s disease. An update on a relatively small proof-of-principal study was presented at the American Academy of Neurology meeting earlier this month; the researchers came from New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
Brain-imaging (repeat MRI scans) show that Alzheimer’s patients’ brains typically shrink 3-4 times faster than a healthy adult’s, due to accelerated brain cell death. Consequently the fluid-filled ventricles within the brain tissue enlarge at a faster than normal rate. In the study reported at the meeting, 16 patients were given IVIg once or twice a month for 6 months, while 8 others were given a placebo injection. After this time, the original placebo patients were switched to receive IVIg.
Those patients given IVIg were found to have significantly lower rates of ventricular enlargement than the controls; the rate of brain tissue shrinkage was approximately halved in the IVIg-treated subjects. The rate of shrinkage was independent of the patient’s age, gender, and brain volume at the start of treatment. Mental performance on items of standard cognitive tests was better in the 18-month-treated IVIg patients than in the placebo/12 month IVIg patients.
These results are encouraging, despite the somewhat complicated study design. However, they’ve received some criticism from other experts, who maintain that studies of this type can provide results that are ‘very misleading’. Fortunately, the manufacturers of the IVIg, Baxter Healthcare, are sponsoring a critical 35-center study, supported by the National Institutes of Health; this should provide the necessary data to determine if the treatment represents a real breakthrough in slowing Alzheimer’s, or is just another disappointing candidate.
Reader Comments (1)
it's good to see this information in your post, i was looking the same but there was not any proper resource, thanx now i have the link which i was looking for my research.
Research Proposal Dissertation