WHAT a strange week for Alzheimer鈥檚 disease.
of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, gave 120 patients Dimebon, an antihistamine drug, for a year. Their scores on practical cognitive ability tests rose significantly compared with those receiving a placebo, and their symptoms seemed to improve the longer they took the drug 鈥� a first for an Alzheimer鈥檚 drug (The Lancet, vol 372, p 207).
Yet in the same issue (p 216), a team led by of the University of Southampton, UK, report that a vaccine that helps to destroy the protein plaques thought to cause Alzheimer鈥檚 successfully cleared the plaques in patients, but failed to alleviate or reverse their symptoms.
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