Alzheimers cure or drug company hype?

[rynnor]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24478942

Sadly I am older than the bbc correspondent - old enough to remember dozens of other 'amazing breakthroughs' which are now dust.

There's 3 major issues with this new drug.

1 - it works by switching off part of the brains immune response which might kill you quicker than alzheimers.

2. The side effects badly damage the pancreas which is a vital organ - again you may cure the disease but kill the patient.

3. Mice - only great apes share the age related degeneration that humans get so this drug may not work in humans.

 

[Scouse]

Your title is as misleading as the papers m8. The scientists are not touting it as a cure for alzheimers - they've done some science and they've managed to keep some mice alive.

Big deal - yes. But none of the scientists touting anything as a "cure".

 

[rynnor]

Your title is as misleading as the papers m8. The scientists are not touting it as a cure for alzheimers - they've done some science and they've managed to keep some mice alive.

Big deal - yes. But none of the scientists touting anything as a "cure".

I think the drug companies that supplied those headlines would disagree

 

[Raven]

Usual media misreporting and hype.

 

[SawTooTH]

It was an academic group not a drug company, though they used a molecule developed for a different indication by GSK.

 

[rynnor]

Hmm MRC funded so high level stuff - not productised research.

 

[Job]

I cant remember the question.

 

[Wij]

Are you my grandson?