Newswise — The Alzheimer Research Forum ("Alzforum" ), an authoritative Web resource widely read by researchers, will hold a Webinar/Live Discussion on whether and how researchers might develop drugs for cognitive decline that is not clearly associated with a particular disease but simply comes with age.
It used to be that when older people started forgetting, scientists could not distinguish if it was impending Alzheimer disease (AD) or just "normal aging." By now, however, converging evidence from studies in people, non-human primates, and rodents has pinpointed brain regions with differential vulnerability to AD and to non-pathological aging. For instance, within the hippocampus early AD targets the entorhinal cortex, causing neuronal loss there, whereas normal aging tends to hit a neighboring subregion, the dentate gyrus, much harder than the entorhinal cortex. In December 2008 a team led by Scott A. Small, MD, associate professor of neurology at Columbia University Medical Center, New York, identified age-related elevation in blood glucose concentration as a potential culprit underlying age-related memory loss that is distinct from AD. The work—which combined magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of 240 non-demented elders with follow-up functional MRI studies in monkeys and mice—suggests that maintaining normal glucose levels could help preserve cognitive function in healthy elders.
With these and other studies, some feel the time is ripe for developing drugs to target brain regions that specifically succumb to non-pathological aging. Early efforts to find such compounds are underway in Small's lab. However, even if biologically plausible, cognition-enhancing drugs face ethical and regulatory hurdles. Should investigators be developing drugs to stem a condition that occurs "normally" (i.e., aging)? On what grounds might such drugs be considered legitimate? What would be the molecular targets of drugs for normal aging? What is the regulatory stance toward drugs that treat cognitive aging?
Small, together with legal ethicist Hank Greely of Stanford University, FDA representative Russell Katz, and clinician-researchers John (Wes) Ashford, also at Stanford, and Sam Gandy, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, and other thought leaders will weigh in on these issues at a Webinar/Live Discussion on February 26, 2009, 12 " 1pm (U.S. EST). To register for the webinar, go to:http://www.alzforum.org/res/for/journal/detail.asp?liveID=173
About the Alzheimer Research ForumThe Alzheimer Research Forum (www.alzforum.org), founded in 1996, is the web's most dynamic scientific community dedicated to understanding Alzheimer disease and related disorders. Access to the web site is free to all. The Forum's editorial priorities are as diverse as the needs of the research community. The web site reports on the latest scientific findings, from basic research to clinical trials; creates and maintains public databases of essential research data and reagents; and produces discussion forums to promote debate, speed the dissemination of new ideas, and break down barriers across the numerous disciplines that can contribute to the global effort to cure Alzheimer's disease.
The ARF team of professional science writers and editors, information technology experts, web developers and producers all work closely with its distinguished and diverse Advisory Board to ensure a high quality of information and services. The Alzheimer Research Forum is an independent nonprofit organization supported by grants and individual donations. The web site does not endorse any specific product or scientific approach.
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