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alzheimer’s brain

US scientists have discovered how to rapidly clear the destructive plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients while they were testing a cancer drug on mice.

The study, published in the journal Science, reported the plaques were broken down at “unprecedented” speed.

Tests also showed an improvement in some brain function.

Researchers said the results were promising, but warned that successful drugs in mice often failed to work in people.

The exact cause of Alzheimer’s remains unknown, but one of the leading theories involves the formation of clumps of a protein called beta-amyloid. These damage and kill brain cells, eventually resulting in memory problems and the inability to think clearly.

Clearing protein plaques is a major focus of Alzheimer’s research and drugs are already being tested in human clinical trials.

In the body, the role of removing beta-amyloid falls to apolipoprotein E – or ApoE. However, people have different versions of the protein. Having the ApoE4 genetic variant is one of the biggest risk factors for developing the disease.

Alzheimer’s plaques (in brown) form around brain cells (in blue) and shrink parts of the brain

Alzheimer’s plaques (in brown) form around brain cells (in blue) and shrink parts of the brain

Scientists at the Case Western Reserve University in Ohio were investigating ways of boosting levels of ApoE, which in theory should reduce levels of beta-amyloid.

They tested bexarotene, which has been approved for use to treat cancers in the skin, on mice with an illness similar to Alzheimer’s.

After one dose in young mice, the levels of beta-amyloid in the brain were “rapidly lowered” within six hours and a 25% reduction was sustained for 70 hours.

In older mice with established amyloid plaques, seven days of treatment halved the number of plaques in the brain.

The study said there were improvements in brain function after treatment, in nest building, maze performance and remembering electrical shocks.

Researcher Paige Cramer said: “This is an unprecedented finding. Previously, the best existing treatment for Alzheimer’s disease in mice required several months to reduce plaque in the brain.”

The research is at a very early stage, and drugs often do not make the leap from animal experiment to human treatment.

Fellow researcher Prof. Gary Landreth said the study was “particularly exciting and rewarding” and held the “potential promise of a therapy for Alzheimer’s disease”.

However, he stressed that the drug had been tested in only three “mouse models” which simulate the early stages of the disease and are not Alzheimer’s.

Prof. Gary Landreth warned people not to “try this at home”, as the drug had not been proven to work in Alzheimer’s patients and there was no indication of what any dose should be.

“We need to be clear, the drug works quite well in mouse models of the disease. Our next objective is to ascertain if it acts similarly in humans,” he said.

Prof. Gary Landreth’s group is preparing to start trials in a small group of people to see if there is a similar effect in humans.

Alzheimer’s disease is likely to become more common as people live longer.

Blowfish, the “hangover cure” from Rally Labs comes in two dissoluble tablets and will be available across U.S. store shelves.

Blowfish, the newly approved remedy by the Food and Drug Administration is the first specifically hangover targeted product, not containing an entirely new ingredient, but pain-relieving concoction.

Rally Labs founder Brenne Haysom explains on the product’s webpage:

“After some research, I found a combination that did the trick, fast.

“I started sharing it with my friends, and they kept asking for more.”

The “Alka-Seltzer”-like tablet is different from most other products on the market in that you dissolve and administer the brew the morning after a heavy night’s drinking, in comparison to other remedy’s that advise it to be taken before or between each glass.

“Out of personal experience, the worst hangover is the one you didn’t expect on a morning you have to do stuff,” Brenne Haysom told ABC News.

“It really came out of my own experience of wanting to go out but having to work really hard the next morning,” she explained.

 

Blowfish, the “hangover cure” from Rally Labs comes in two dissoluble tablets and will available across U.S. store shelves

Blowfish, the “hangover cure” from Rally Labs comes in two dissoluble tablets and will available across U.S. store shelves

 

While Blowfish’s active ingredients are aspirin and caffeine – two basic and wildly known remedies though usually taken and offered separately – the product is considered a new drug by the FDA because of its packaged combination.

Because of this, a product of similar nature must undergo FDA review before it can be stamped with their approval, according to the FDA’s website.

With 500 mg of aspirin and 60 mg of caffeine, Blowfish claims its combination “helps restore mental alertness or wakefulness when experiencing fatigue or drowsiness associated with a hangover”.

A similar product by Bayer called Bayer AM, however, advertises itself as “Asprin and Alertness air tablets”, containing the same amounts of aspirin and caffeine, however, it doesn’t offer the packaging devoted to fighting the morning buzz or Blowfish’s same guarantee.

Let them “make it up to you”, the company offers customers if they feel slighted or dissatisfied.

Rally Labs’ website invites users to give them call or email, once better, as well as share competing remedies that may have worked better.

Though if your hangover is severe enough to cause continuous vomiting, diarrhea and severe fatigue, this still may not be the “fast” or “guaranteed” cure for you.