Immune Therapy Helps Alzheimer’s Patients

by Ashley Staker on January 15, 2010

There are millions of people world wide affected by Alzheimer’s and the majority of these people are on the hunt for help. If you are looking for some assistance then immune therapy may be a route you could consider taking.

Protect Yourself Now and Live a Healthy Future

Protect Yourself Now and Live a Healthy Future

How terrific would it be to have a product that boosts immune function and protects against Alzheimer’s? It may come to pass… intravenous immunoglobulin, formed from purified human blood antibodies and long used for treating immune deficiency, has recently sailed through two trial phases for treating mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. Though these immunoglobulins have more than 25 years of history of safe use for immune deficiencies and disorders, the treatment is moving closer to seeking FDA approval for Alzheimer’s.

Early data from a placebo-controlled investigation into the effects of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) — also referred to as IGIV — on Alzheimer’s disease show a significant improvement in cognitive and daily living abilities. This study shows that benefits for Alzheimer’s patients continue through nine months of treatment — when researchers looked at patients treated with IVIg for other indications, they found a 42% lower incidence of dementia. Results from the Phase I trial were published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging and results from Phase II will be published soon.

The study’s lead investigator, Norman Relkin, MD, PhD, director of the Memory Disorders Program at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, told me that IVIg seems to work by targeting abnormal clumps of beta amyloid protein in the brain that characterize Alzheimer’s disease. In the first trial (eight patients, nine months) they studied tolerability and early efficacy at various doses, while in the second phase, 24 patients showed improved cognition and functioning, and reduced amyloid levels in the brains. The third phase is expected to take about 18 months and is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Baxter Healthcare, developer of IVIg as Gammagard Liquid, a proprietary version of the naturally occurring immunoglobulin. It will involve 360 patients at 35 sites and will measure brain imaging and biological markers from plasma. Would-be participants in this Phase III are encouraged to go to the National Institute on Aging Alzheimer’s Disease Education & Referral Center (ADEAR) at http://www.alzheimers.org. Participants must be 50 to 89 years old, with a diagnosis of probable mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease.

I asked Dr. Relkin when we might expect to see IVIg available to the public. “The earliest would be three to four years,” he said, “after we have analyzed our data and presented it to the FDA for their consideration.”

Source(s):

Norman Relkin, MD, PhD, associate professor of clinical neurology and neuroscience at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. He is director of the Memory Disorders Program.

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Reprinted with the permission of:
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