Friday 8th January 2016- The Guardian: Alzheimer’s treatment closer as brain inflammation shown to be key

‘Scientists have fresh hopes for an Alzheimer’s treatment after experiments to reduce inflammation in diseased mouse brains prevented memory and behavioural problems in the animals.

Alzheimer’s disease has long been linked to disruption in the brain’s immune system, but the latest research adds to evidence that inflammation in the brain is not so much caused by the disease, but is a driver of the disorder.

Researchers at Southampton University studied tissues from healthy human brains and others affected by Alzheimer’s disease. They found that Alzheimer’s brains had more immune cells, known as microglia, than healthy brains.

The scientists next looked at microglia in mice that had been bred to develop a condition that resembles Alzheimer’s disease. In a series of experiments reported in the journal Brain, the team injected mice with a chemical that stops microglia numbers from growing too high.

In untreated mice, the disease caused brain cells steadily to lose their connections with one another. But treated mice kept their nerve cell connections and had fewer memory and behavioural problems. Crucially, the treatment maintained the normal levels of microglia needed for a healthy brain immune system. The treatment did not, however, stop the build up of characteristic amyloid plaques in the animals’ brains.

Diego Gomez-Nicola, who led the study, said the experiments were “as close to evidence as we can get” that inflammation and microglia were important for the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. The team now intends to work with the pharmaceutical industry to find a suitable drug that can be tested in humans. The chemical given to the mice acts on a receptor found on the surface of microglia called CSFR1.’

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Alzheimer’s treatment closer as brain inflammation shown to be key

Alzheimer’s: Curbing inflammation in the brain could help combat effects of disease, study finds- The Independent

Blocking brain inflammation ‘halts Alzheimer’s disease’- BBC News

Sunday 3rd January 2016- The Independent: Charity launches website to give people ‘greater control over their death’

‘A website will be launched this week that will allow people to complete an online declaration of how they wish to be treated in the final weeks of their life.

The charity behind the site said anyone who completes the document, known as an “advance decision” – detailing how someone can refuse a specific type of medical treatment or drug at some time in the future – will have greater control over their death.

Compassion in Dying said it created MyDecisions.org.uk  in response to growing concerns about how few people were planning ahead for end-of-life  treatment should they lose the ability to make their own decisions.

The website will take people through different scenarios that they may encounter if their health fails. From Thursday, users can receive a copy of their advance decision, otherwise known as a living will, or a copy of an “advance statement”.

An advance decision is legally binding, so if a healthcare professional ignores it they can be taken to court.

An advance statement differs from an advance decision in that it sets down a person’s preferences, wishes, beliefs as a guide for anyone who might have to make choices if they have lost the capacity to make decisions.’

‘Research commissioned by Compassion in Dying revealed last year that only 4 per cent of Britons have made a record of their preferences or appointed a lasting power of attorney. ‘

See:

Charity launches website to give people ‘greater control over their death’

Saturday 17th October 2015- New Scientist: Parkinson’s patients ‘walk and talk again’ after receiving cancer drug in trial

 

‘An expensive cancer drug may reverse late-stage Parkinson’s disease, enabling participants in a small clinical trial to speak and walk again for the first time in years. While there are several treatments for the symptoms of Parkinson’s, if confirmed this would be the first time a drug has worked on the causes of the disease.

“We’ve seen patients at end stages of the disease coming back to life,” says Charbel Moussa of Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington DC, who led the trial.

The drug, called nilotinib, works by boosting the brain’s own “garbage disposal system” to clear proteins that accumulate in the brains of people with Parkinson’s disease, says Moussa. These proteins are thought to trigger the death of brain cells that make molecules like dopamine that are needed for movement and other functions.’

‘Tests in animals showed promise, so Moussa, his colleague Fernando Pagan and their team set up a small trial of 12 volunteers with Parkinson’s disease or a similar condition called dementia with Lewy bodies. The trial was designed to test only the safety of the oral drug, which was given as a daily dose for six months.

Although all the volunteers were at an advanced stage of disease at the start of the trial, and three of them were unable to speak, all of them started to improve once they started taking the drug, some as little as three weeks later.

“We had people as stiff as a board at the start of the study who were walking around, sitting down and bending their legs by the end,” says Moussa, “You could see the elation on their faces when they saw the improvement. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room.”

“They were brighter and more fluent in speech, and they had a lot more energy,” says Pagan. All three of the participants who were unable to speak had begun talking again by the end of the trial. “It was like an awakening for them,” says Pagan.’

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People with Parkinson’s walk again after promising drug trial

Parkinson’s patients ‘walk and talk again’ after receiving cancer drug in trial- The Independent

 

Friday 16th October 2015- BBC News: Woman, 112, ‘becomes UK’s oldest hip op patient’

‘Britain’s oldest person may have entered the record books again – by having a hip operation at 112 years old.

Surgeons say Gladys Hooper is probably the oldest person in the world to have had a hip replacement.

She is now recovering in hospital on the Isle of Wight.’

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Woman, 112, ‘becomes UK’s oldest hip op patient’

UK’s oldest person breaks hip replacement record at 112- The Guardian

Thursday 15th October 2015- The Guardian: Mid Staffs NHS trust charged over deaths of four patients

‘The Health and Safety Executive has brought criminal charges against Mid Staffordshire NHS trust over the deaths of four elderly patients between 2005 and May 2014.

The HSE said it had charged the trust, which was engulfed by scandal, after a “thorough and comprehensive investigation into the circumstances of four deaths of patients under its care”. The allegations relate to health and safety breaches.

“We have concluded our investigation into the death of four patients at Stafford hospital and have decided there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to bring criminal proceedings in this case,” said Wayne Owen, HSE’s principal inspector in the West Midlands.

The HSE said the charges related to Patrick Daly, 89, who died on 13 May 2014; Edith Bourne, 83, who died on 22 July 2013; Ivy Bunn, 90, who died on 6 November 2008; and Lillian Tucker, 77 who died on 21 October 2005.

The case is due to be heard by Stafford magistrates on 4 November.

The Mid Staffordshire trust was at the centre of one of the biggest scandals to hit the NHS when it emerged that an estimated 400-1,200 patients had died as a result of poor care between January 2005 and March 2009 at Stafford hospital.’

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Mid Staffs NHS trust charged over deaths of four patients

Stafford Hospital: Mid-Staffs trust charged over deaths- BBC News

Mid Staffs hospital scandal: the essential guide- The Guardian

Monday 21st September 2015- The Independent: Arthritis drug could soon reverse Alzheimer’s symptoms after successful tests on mice, say scientists

‘A painkiller widely used to treat rheumatoid arthritis has been shown to reverse the symptoms of dementia in the brains of laboratory mice, raising hope that there may soon be an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, scientists have said.

The drug, salsalate, is a licensed pain killer but in mice with a form of dementia similar to Alzheimer’s it reversed the changes to a key protein in the brain that builds up in patients with the debilitating neurological disease, they found.

The researchers said it is the first time any drug has been shown to have an effect on the “tau” protein that accumulates in the brain of people with Alzheimer’s and a range of similar dementias known as “tauopathies”. It could lead to an effective therapy even for patients in the later stages of disease, the researchers said.

“We identified for the first time a pharmacological approach that reverses all aspects of tau toxicity,” said Li Gan, PhD of the Gladstone Institutes, a non-profit research organisation affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco.’

See:

Arthritis drug could soon reverse Alzheimer’s symptoms after successful tests on mice, say scientists

Thursday 10th September 2015: The Independent: Alzheimer’s disease may be infectious, study claims

‘The “seeds” of Alzheimer’s disease may be transmitted from one person to another during certain medical procedures, scientists have found.’

‘The investigation has shown for the first time in humans that Alzheimer’s disease may be a transmissible infection which could be inadvertently passed between people.’

‘Scientists emphasised that the new evidence is still preliminary and should not stop anyone from having surgery. They have also stressed that it is not possible to “catch” Alzheimer’s by living with someone with the disease.

However, the findings of a study into eight people who were given growth hormone injections when they were children have raised the disturbing possibility that Alzheimer’s can be transmitted under certain circumstances when infected tissues or surgical instruments are passed between individuals.’

‘Until now, it was thought that Alzheimer’s occurred only as a result of inheriting certain genetic mutations causing the familial version of the disease, or from random “sporadic” events within the brain of elderly people, said Professor John Collinge, head of neurodegenerative diseases at University College London.

“What we need to consider is that in addition to there being sporadic Alzheimer’s disease and inherited or familial Alzheimer’s disease, there could also be acquired forms of Alzheimer’s disease,” Professor Collinge said.

“You could have three different ways you have these protein seeds generated in your brain. Either they happen spontaneously, an unlucky event as you age, or you have a faulty gene, or you’ve been exposed to a medical accident. That’s what we’re hypothesising,” he said.’

See:

Alzheimer’s disease may be infectious, study claims

Sunday 19th October 2014- The Guardian: Right-to-die campaigner who starved herself said she had ‘no alternative’

“What alternative do I have? The other methods, to my knowledge, are either illegal or I would need to go to [the Dignitas clinic in] Switzerland, and I want to die in my own bed.”

These were the words behind the decision made by Jean Davies, 86, to end her life through a 5 week fast, which she admited to being an ‘intolerable’ method but the only option for her to exercise her right to die.

In England and Wales both euthanasia and assisted dying are illegal.

She passed away on the 1st October 2014.

See:

Right-to-die campaigner who starved herself said she had ‘no alternative’

 

Friday 17th February 2012- The Independent: Dawn of the age of wireless medicine

The first drug-delivering microchip has been developed to help battle the fact that 30% of the 9 million prescriptions filled every year are never administered by scientists at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Vancouver. This chip, implanted under the skin, is said to help to combat problems patients face when taking medication, such as a fear of pain from needles, and taking the correct dosage at the correct time.

So far it has been suggested that it could be used to benefit cancer, heart disease and multiple sclerosis patients after already being tested on 7 female osteoporosis patients in place of injections of Teriparatide.

There those appear to be many benefits in the long term, such as increasing the likelihood that patients will complete a cycle of drugs for their ailment without interruption following symptomatic change, and particularly elderly patients and the mentally ill could have a decreased risk of self harm by possibly administering the wrong dosage too many or too few times a day.

However, the implantation of the chip has not been extensively described in the article, such as the likelihood of infection from the test cases already observed, how often the chip needs to be changed. Also, the possible anxiety a patient may experience at the idea of such a procedure in the short term must be considered; perhaps stopping them for following this course of drug treatment at all, rendering the benefits mute.

See:

• Dawn of the age of wireless medicine