Week in Review: New Drugs Offer Hope For Alzheimer’s Sufferers
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
An experimental class of drugs could offer hope to hundreds of thousands of Alzheimer’s sufferers, scientists believe.
The medicines, called gamma-secretase modulators (GSM), could provide a more effective way to combat the disease. GSMs attack clumps of protein in the brain that attach themselves to brain cells and are believed to cause the damage that leads to Alzheimer’s.
While previous medications have worked on the catalysts that cause these proteins to grow, GSMs are the first drugs to have success in fighting the main trigger for the disease. In addition, the drugs appear to raise levels of another protein, which may help to protect the brain against Alzheimer’s.
The results from a large clinical trial of the drugs, involving 1,600 patients in America, are expected to be announced in the summer. However, it will be years before the drugs are ready for use.
Smart Gene Helps Add 15 Years To Life
Intelligent people could live up to 15 years longer than their less bright counterparts, according to scientists who have linked a “smart gene” to longevity.
Researchers in Italy found that those with the less “smart” variant of the gene, which has already been linked to IQ levels by scientists, were unlikely to live beyond 85. But the team at the University of Calabria found that others with a “good” version of the same gene could expect to live to 100. The gene, known as SSADH, is already known to “detoxify” the brain by getting rid of excess acid.
Just the Smell of Coffee Could Be a Wake-Up Call
Just the smell of coffee could be enough to wake people up in the morning, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that the aroma of coffee helped restore brain activity in sleep-deprived rats to normal or near-normal levels.
The finding, published in New Scientist, has led to suggestions that factory owners should pump the smell of coffee into the building to revive flagging workers unable to have a cup.
A team of Japanese scientists took a group of 30 rats and deprived half of them of sleep for 24 hours.
Half of those kept awake were then exposed to the smell of roasted coffee beans – and showed almost the same level of awakeness as those not deprived of sleep.
