Antibody treatment raises hope in Alzheimer’s fight

An experimental treatment for Alzheimer’s has produced promising results.

Norman Relkin’s team at Cornell University in New York gave patients weekly or monthly doses of immunoglobulin antibodies extracted from human blood. The product, called IVIg, is already used to treat a number of autoimmune and neuro-degenerative disorders.Five of the six people who completed the six-month trial have improved and one has stabilised, Relkin told an American Academy of Neurology meeting in Miami Beach, Florida, this week. The improvement ranged from 1 to 5 points on a scale called the Folstein Minimental. Scores typically decline by 3 points per year in Alzheimer’s.IVIg, which is extremely costly, contains a wide variety of antibodies, but the team suspect antibodies against the amyloid plaques that build up in the brain are the key. “We are working on identifying the specific antibody that conveys the benefit, hoping to extract and synthesise it so that a much cheaper product can be made widely available,” Relkin says.(Source: New Scientist, issue 2495 p 19: April 2005.)