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Quoted message said:Tim Tyler ([email hidden]) Subject: Re: Copper & Alzheimer's Disease
Quoted message said:A report of a previous study:
Quoted message said:``Research teams at Harvard Medical School, the University of Melbourne, and Prana Biotechnology
Ltd in Australia are working collaboratively on giving Alzheimer's-prone mice copper chelators,
substances that sop up metals and eliminate them from the body. These new metal-binding drugs
effectively "melted" the amyloid plaques in living mice in as little as nine weeks, and are now in
clinical trials with Alzheimer's patients. Results of the first of these drugs, clioquinol, should
be known within 12 months, and further trials of this approach are currently in preparation.''
Quoted message said:
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Quoted message said:|im |yler timtyler.orgtimtyler.orgOpen ↗ [email hidden]
Here is a small study indicating clioquinol virtually halted progression of moderate AD in humans.
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1: Arch Neurol. 2003 Dec;60(12):1685-91. Related Articles, Links
Comment in: Arch Neurol. 2003 Dec;60(12):1678-9.
Metal-protein attenuation with iodochlorhydroxyquin (clioquinol) targeting Abeta amyloid deposition
and toxicity in Alzheimer disease: a pilot phase 2 clinical trial.
Ritchie CW, Bush AI, Mackinnon A, Macfarlane S, Mastwyk M, MacGregor L, Kiers L, Cherny R, Li QX,
Tammer A, Carrington D, Mavros C, Volitakis I, Xilinas M, Ames D, Davis S, Beyreuther K, Tanzi RE,
Masters CL.
Departments of Pathology, The University of Melbourne, The Mental Health Research Institute of
Victoria, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
BACKGROUND: Alzheimer disease (AD) may be caused by the toxic accumulation of beta-amyloid (Abeta).
OBJECTIVE: To test this theory, we developed a clinical intervention using clioquinol, a metal-protein-
attenuating compound (MPAC) that inhibits zinc and copper ions from binding to Abeta, thereby
promoting Abeta dissolution and diminishing its toxic properties. METHODS: A pilot phase 2 clinical
trial in patients with moderately severe Alzheimer disease. RESULTS: Thirty-six subjects were
randomized. The effect of treatment was significant in the more severely affected group (baseline
cognitive subscale score of the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale,
Quoted message said:/=25), due to a substantial worsening of scores in those taking
placebo compared with minimal deterioration for the clioquinol group. Plasma Abeta42 levels declined
in the clioquinol group and increased in the placebo group. Plasma zinc levels rose in the clioquinol-
treated group. The drug was well tolerated. CONCLUSION: Subject to the usual caveats inherent in
studies with small sample size, this pilot phase 2 study supports further investigation of this
novel treatment strategy using a metal-protein-attenuating compound.
Publication Types: Clinical Trial Clinical Trial, Phase II Randomized Controlled Trial
PMID: 14676042 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
ncbi.nlm.nih.govquery.fcgiOpen ↗
t=Abstract
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Here'a an article on the study.
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Drug used to treat athlete's foot 'slows down Alzheimer's' By Michael Day and Martyn Halle (Filed:
11/01/2004)
A drug that is used in the treatment of athlete's foot could be used to treat Alzheimer's disease,
according to a new study by British doctors.
Iris Murdoch, who died in 1999, and her husband John Bayley The study, by a team from University
College, London, found that clioquinol, a drug that is also used to treat ear infections and
indigestion, can almost halt the progression of Alzheimer's.
It discovered that clioquinol, which was developed 100 years ago, is able to absorb the zinc and
copper atoms that concentrate in the brains of Alzheimer's sufferers before dementia sets in.
Doctors believe that by absorbing these atoms, clioquinol can arrest the onset of dementia,
potentially helping thousands of people.
Dr Craig Ritchie, a psychiatrist at UCL and a Medical Research Council research fellow who led the
trial, said that the results were "very exciting".
"The patients on this trial had Alzheimer's that was mild to moderate, but there was very little
change in their brains once they had started treatment," he said.
"This drug could give your mind a chance to stay healthy as long as your body does. Particularly for
patients who get this terrible disease in middle age, we need better treatments."
The study was prompted by research at Melbourne University in Australia and Harvard University in
the United States, which found that clioquinol could prevent zinc from building up on the surface of
the brain.
Academics from the universities speculated that by blocking zinc they could halt, and possibly
reduce, the brain damage that causes Alzheimer's victims to lose their memory.
To test their theory, the UCL doctors tested 13 Alzheimer's patients, giving them clioquinol over a
nine-month period, and 13 other Alzheimer's sufferers who were given a placebo.
The results, published in the Archives of Neurology, show that patients given clioquinol retained
significantly more mental capacity than those who received the placebos. Dr Ritchie said that the
patients taking clioquinol experienced a decline in their mental faculties of just 1.4 per cent.
"You would normally see a drop of four points or more in someone with Alzheimer's over the period of
time we treated these patients," he added. "For those taking the placebo, their mental decline was
8.9 per cent. It's a very large gap and indicated that the drug was working."
Alzheimer's affects one in 10 people over the age of 65, and almost half of those aged 85 and over.
The protective effect of clioquinol appears to be nearly twice as great as that of the latest
generation of Alzheimer's drugs, such as donepezil, which are expensive and not always widely
available.
A survey by Pfizer, the drug company, revealed last week that the availability of treatments, which
cost up to £100 a month, varied sharply across Britain. In the worst area, Lothian in Scotland, less
than £1 a head was spent on these drugs in the over-65 population compared with more than £10 a head
in Northern Ireland.
Clioquinol should be much cheaper because it is no longer protected by a patent.
Prana Technology, an Australian drug firm, provided clioquinol for the first small trial. Larger
trials of the drug are expected to start shortly and will include British patients.
Dr Ritchie said that animal studies had suggested that the drug might even reverse the progress of
the dementia - something that current treatments are unable to do.
"We know that in mice the disease was reversed. Everyone is excited but this was only a small trial
and we have to do a larger trial. We think this drug will produce the same results in extended
trials with humans. If we can get to them early, we might be able to treat patients and leave them
with very little damage to their brain."
One fear over the long-term use of clioquinol is that it may damage peripheral nerves and the nerves
in the eye. Dr Ritchie said his team found no evidence of this during their trial.
Dr Susanne Sorensen, the head of research at the Alzheimer's Society, said: "The UCL research
suggests that there may be a novel use for this already existing drug in the treatment of
Alzheimer's disease. But the trial is limited in its scale and we believe it would be valuable to
see a larger scale trial.
"The potential for new drugs that may interfere with or revert the progression of Alzheimer's
disease gives hope to people with dementia and their carers."
The plight of sufferers and their carers was brought home to millions two years ago when the film
biography of the novelist Iris Murdoch was showered with awards for its touching and realistic
portrayal of the writer's dementia.
news.telegraph.co.ukmain.jhtmlOpen ↗
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--Hua Kul [email hidden]