Breakthrough Treatment Could Halt Alzheimer's Progression

I've posted a couple of times lately about recent advances in understanding and treating Alzheimer's disease. Now researchers at the University of Aberdeen in the UK and TauRx Therapeutics in Singapore have announced a new drug, called Rember^TM, which dissolves the tangles of tau fibers which form inside nerve cells in the brain and destroy neurons critical for memory.

In the trials of people with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's, patients given 60mg of Rember over 50 weeks showed an 81 percent reduction in mental decline. Over 19 months, patients on Rember showed no significant decline in mental function, while patients on the placebo grew steadily worse.

Additional, larger trials are planned and Rember could be available as early as 2012.

First Clinical Trials of Engineered Nanoparticles for Treatment of Cancer

The Houston Chronicle reports that clinical trials of gold nanoshells have begun in human patients in an attempt to treat a patient with head and neck cancer. The shells—which are about 120 nanometers in diameter and feature a gold shell over a glass core—are injected into the body intravenously over the course of a day. A small amount—about 1 percent—become embedded in tumors. The rest wash out of the body harmlessly.

The nanoparticles that become lodged in the tumors are then excited by infrared light, which causes the shells to heat up and burn away the tumor without damaging healthy cells nearby.

This trial marks the first time engineered nanomaterials have been tested on humans. I find this research to be truly exciting, and I hope the clinical trials go well as it could have promise for treatment of many kinds of tumors. It is not, however, a cure for cancer, as Congressman John Culberson once called it. Hopefully, though, it will bring us a step closer and improve survivability of some types of cancer.

CNN Article About Volunteering for Clinical Trials

I wrote a post last year about volunteering to be a test subject for clinical research trials. Now CNN has an article on their website called Do you want to be a guinea pig (I think they left out the "Hey Buddy" part at the beginning), highlighting the increasing need for test subjects in clinical trials.

There are positives and negatives to participating in clinical trials. The biggest positives, in my mind, are that you generally get your medications and doctor's office visit paid for as part of the trial, and that you are helping to advance our knowledge of science and our ability to treat various medical conditions. Oh, and sometimes they actually give you money, too.

There are risks and drawbacks as well. For starters, if it's a blinded study (and they usually are), you don't know whether you're actually getting the test medication or a placebo. My local clinic sent me an offer to participate in a study of cholesterol medication, but it would have required that I stop taking the cholesterol medication I'm currently on, and only having a 50/50 chance of getting the study medication. That would have meant a 50 percent chance of not taking any cholesterol medication at all. Thanks, but no thanks. I'm more than willing to participate in the studies that are looking for "healthy volunteers" because those studies—usually earlier in the process—are designed to help figure out what tolerable, safe levels of the medication are. Basically, they're designed to compare any symptoms patients may get while taking various dosages of the medication to symptoms people who are taking the placebo get.

The CNN report has some tips you should ask before volunteering for any trials, so it's a good resource to take a look at if you've considered volunteering for any trials, maybe as a way to make a little extra cash in these tight times.

Hey Buddy, Wanna Be a Research Test Subject?

Sometimes the easiest way to contribute to scientific advancement is not to be the scientist, but to be the lab rat. Research projects across the country and around the world need subjects for their test and control groups. The two means they have for getting subjects into their tests is by recruiting and by accepting volunteers.

Recruiting happens when the researchers target people with specific conditions, usually by working through a network of doctors who treat whatever condition they are trying to treat. The doctors recruit the patients and, if the patients consent, the doctors sign them up for the trials and are usually available to administer the treatments and provide follow-up care as part of the study.

Volunteers, on the other hand, take a proactive step to contact the research center or some agent in order to volunteer for the trial. I use the term "volunteer" loosely here, because in many of these studies, the volunteers are compensated (in cash, free medical care during the study, or both).

There are several ways to find out about opportunities for you to participate in a research study. The first (and best) is to ask your doctor. My doctor works at a clinic where they do clinical research, and she takes part in a couple of studies, one of which she considered signing me up for (until she discovered that the samples of a cholesterol medication she was giving me lowered my cholesterol by a massive amount in just two months).

You can also volunteer by checking with a local testing center, such as those run by Covance, or by searching for available studies at ClinicalTrials.gov, a site run by the National Institutes of Health. If you're looking for studies outside the U.S., Thomson Centerwatch maintains a list of actively recruiting clinical trials around the world.

Even if you volunteer directly, though, you should still check with your doctor before volunteering for any study.