Alzheimer's treatments--statins?

[futuremsfdoc]

So I'm looking for some information on treatments currently accepted and used in the US for this disease. I've found the cholinesterase inhibitors and the glutamate blockers, but what about statins? Is there any solid evidence to support that they are effective, and if they are has the FDA approved them for treatment?

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[tofurious]

There is some evidence that statin use is associated with a lower risk of AD, but it is not indicated for the TREATMENT of AD. The one other agent that has been used in the treatment is Vitamin E, but the recent (controversial) meta-analysis would recommend against it. You decide.

 

[futuremsfdoc]

thanks. yeah i've heard that about vitamin E as well...

i personally like the idea of an amyloid beta immunization to prime the immune system against the plaques, but that probably creates more problems than it resolves.

 

[tr]

I personally like the idea of an amyloid beta immunization to prime the immune system against the plaques, but that probably creates more problems than it resolves.

That might work if the plaques were the cause of the dysfunction, but it's more than likely that they're just a side effect.

The evidence for the amyloid hypothesis is marginal at best. PS-1 and -2-mediated gamma-sec cleavage affects lot of other things besides APP. And the levels of APP cleavage products in CSF do not differ between AD patients and healthy controls.

 

[tofurious]

The evidence for the amyloid hypothesis is marginal at best. PS-1 and -2-mediated gamma-sec cleavage affects lot of other things besides APP. And the levels of APP cleavage products in CSF do not differ between AD patients and healthy controls.

That's still controversial. I think there's never ANY evidence that the level of cleavage products is HIGHER in AD subjects, but there is some evidence that it is lower in AD subjects' CSF than control CSF (although there is also evidence that there is no difference).

 

[futuremsfdoc]

Alright, thanks for answering my questions all. The reason I was asking is I had a final that dealt partly with the genetics of Alzheimer's and some of the papers I read sort of contradicted what we learned in lecture, so I was just looking for some extra info.

 

[stroke]

So I'm looking for some information on treatments currently accepted and used in the US for this disease. I've found the cholinesterase inhibitors and the glutamate blockers, but what about statins? Is there any solid evidence to support that they are effective, and if they are has the FDA approved them for treatment?

Statins have not been approved by FDA yet. There is NIH sponsored study looking for effects of statins (particularly Zocor) in AD involving several medical centers. The first results probably will be in a year. There are problems enrolling people into the study, b/c one of the exclusion criteria is abnormal cholesterol levels (these people must get statins, so can't be randomized) and it's hard to find those (there is a reason McDonald's stock is a good buy) . We've enrolled only 4 people at out institution b/c of that. From several people I spoke to invloved in the study, there seems to be hope that statins might be helpful but no guarantees.

Hope that helps