Alzheimer’s Cure Is Within Reach Through Drug Maintenance

Alzheimer's is a strain in the last episodes in life. However science still has no perfect answer to cure Alzheimer's disease.

Though the cure is yet not within reach, some studies show promise in the benefits of maintaining the intake of drugs for the current victims of the tragic illness. BBC reports that a drug is observed to slow the brain's death and instead help in the maintenance of mental function in patients. This is based from a presentation of a study involving 891 patients that was presented at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Toronto.

Alzheimer's disease is a degenerative brain illness that affects 1 in 10 people who are over 65. It is generally defined by the gradual loss of cognitive functions which result to mental and physical challenges that are manifested usually by terrifying relentlessness. Elder people suffering from it tend to forget the very faces and names of their loved ones along with the memories. This disease usually lasts until death. This terror of aging is expected to be conquered by science soon through intensive studies and research.

Dr Serge Gauthier, the director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Unit at McGill University in Canada, said that it is great to see improvements of the effects of drugs in the standard cognitive and functional tests, supporting brain scan evidence of a slowing in disease progression. The study involved explanations about the drugs being a strong agent to slow down the damage in the brain by the following presumptions:

• the drugs interfere with each other
• there is something different about the patients not on other medication
• the small size of the sub-group in the trial means the results may have been fluked

The neurons are supposed to connect and communicate at synapses inside the brain. Within the communication are the tiny bursts of chemicals called neurotransmitters, which carry information from one cell to another. Whenever there is disruption in the process, that is Alzheimer's. The role of the drugs is to facilitate the communication. Without the drugs then, the brain damage will be hastened. Two of the mechanisms that support the process of communication are: Cholinesterase inhibitors and the NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) receptor antagonist. Alz.org explained it this way:

• 1) Cholinesterase inhibitors work by slowing down the process that breaks down a key neurotransmitter. Donepezil, galantamine and rivastigmine are cholinesterase inhibitors.
• 2) Memantine, the fifth Alzheimer's drug, is an NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) receptor antagonist, which works by regulating the activity of glutamate, an important neurotransmitter in the brain involved in learning and memory.

There is hope that the cure for Alzheimer's is still within reach. Someday it will not be a huge problem among the elderly anymore.