Alzheimer's Disease

Medical Background

Alzheimer’s disease causes the gradual loss of brain cells, resulting in memory loss, disorientation and ultimately death. The areas of the brain that control memory and thinking skills are affected first, but as the disease progresses, cells die in other regions of the brain. Eventually, a person with Alzheimer’s will need complete care.

Although some existing drug treatments can improve or stabilize symptoms and a great deal of research on new treatments is underway, there is currently no cure for Alzheimer’s.

Human and Social Costs

Alzheimer’s disease affects as many as 4.5 million Americans. It currently afflicts one in ten people over 65 and the number is growing as the “baby boom” population ages. Studies estimate that the number of Alzheimer’s cases could range from 11 to 16 million nationwide by 2050 unless new treatment options are developed.

The long-term care that is often necessary for Alzheimer’s patients places a tremendous burden on our state and national health systems as well as on patients’ families. In the U.S., Alzheimer’s-related health care costs are estimated to exceed $100 billion annually, with the care of each individual patient costing an average of approximately $40,000 per year.

A recently published study (online) estimated that more than 88,000 Missourians currently suffer from Alzheimer’s. Based on current demographic trends, the number of Missourians affected by Alzheimer’s is projected to exceed 207,000 by the year 2025, an increase of 135%. The study estimated that the direct health care costs and indirect social costs (lost work time, etc.) associated with Alzheimer’s will cost Missourians a total of about $826 million in 2005 and more than $44 billion over the next 20 years.

The Potential for Stem Cell Cures

More than 50 years of research on adult stem cells, taken from adult tissues, has produced such lifesaving treatments as bone marrow transplants for leukemia patients. And, adult stem cells are likely to provide additional cures for some diseases in the years ahead.

However, the new frontier in stem cell research involves early, or “embryonic,” stem cells (ES cells). Unlike adult stem cells, ES cells have the potential to turn into and regenerate any type of cell or tissue in the human body. As a result, ES cells could provide cures for many currently incurable or common diseases and injuries that cannot be cured with adult stem cells, or more effective treatments than adult stem cells may provide.

Recent studies indicate that ES cells could someday be transplanted into a patient’s brain to treat or cure diseases like Alzheimer’s, by generating healthy cells to replace diseased and damaged cells.

There are two basic sources of ES cells for such potential therapies. One source is the leftover embryos at fertility clinics that would otherwise be discarded and destroyed. ES cells can also be produced with Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT), a process that uses a patient’s own cells and an unfertilized human egg to make ES cells. SCNT has the added advantage of producing ES cells that will automatically match the patient’s genetic makeup. As a result, SCNT avoids the need to find a genetically matching donor and the problem of immune system rejection, two limitations associated with donated adult and ES cells.
Much more research is needed to determine if any type of stem cell transplants or any other treatments could repair the complicated brain cell damage associated with Alzheimer’s. However, at the very least, SCNT can play a role in efforts to discover the causes of Alzheimer’s and develop potential treatments that could alleviate the symptoms of this terrible disease.

That’s because SCNT has also given medical researchers a method of growing cells that have the defects associated with a disease in a laboratory setting. This use of SCNT provides new ways to study how a disease like Alzheimer’s progresses at the cellular level and to test the effectiveness of new drugs or other treatments that may cure or slow the progress of the disease.

Because Alzheimer’s affects many different types of cells in the brain, it will be much more challenging to develop stem cell therapies for Alzheimer’s than for some other neurological conditions. However, even though Alzheimer’s is unlikely to be one of the first diseases to be cured with new stem cell therapies, allowing scientists to continue the advance of ES cell research will ultimately benefit people who suffer from this devastating disease.

The consensus of the medical and patient community is that all types of stem cell research should be pursued in the effort to find cures for diseases like Alzheimer’s, and that ES cells can play an important role in this effort.

That’s why ES cell research is strongly supported by the overwhelming majority of medical researchers, including over 60 Nobel Prize-winning scientists; by medical organizations, like the American Medical Association, American Society for Neural Transplantation & Repair and National Medical Association; by dozens of disease foundations and patient groups; and, by leading patient advocates, like Michael J. Fox and former First Lady Nancy Reagan.

In 2004, just weeks before President Reagan died after a steady deterioration caused by Alzheimer’s, Nancy Reagan spoke eloquently in favor of pursuing all types of stem cell research. “Science has presented us with a hope called stem-cell research,” she said, “which may provide our scientists with answers that have so long been beyond our grasp. I just don’t see how we can turn our backs on this. There are just so many diseases that can be cured, or at least helped. We have lost so much time already, and I just really can't bear to lose any more.”

LINKS TO MORE INFORMATION:

The Alzheimer’s Association
- http://www.alz.org/AboutAD/WhatIsAD.asp

Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at Washington University , St. Louis , MO
- http://alzheimer.wustl.edu/

The Alzheimer's Society, UK
- http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/News_and_Campaigns/Policy_Watch/stemcells.htm

“Study Shows SCNT Stem Cell Research Could Benefit Over 500,000 Missouri Patients and Reduce State Health Care Costs by Billions.”
- http://www.missouricures.com/rel_021705.php

“Stem cells for Alzheimer's?”
The Scientist
- http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20040611/04

Nancy Reagan Letter to Sen. Orrin Hatch Supporting Therapeutic Cloning (SCNT)
- http://hatch.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Press
Releases.Detail&PressRelease_id=674&Month=2&Year=2003

“Nancy’s Next Campaign.”
Newsweek Magazine
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5198169/site/newsweek/

The Alliance for Aging Research
- http://www.agingresearch.org/content/topic/detail/1018

“Stem cells reduce brain damage: May replace, protect injured tissue.”
Harvard University Gazette
- http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2002/11.21/01-stem.html

“Early Alzheimer's disease may be precipitated by a neuron traffic jam.”
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- http://www.hhmi.org/news/goldstein4.html

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