WHAT should we make of stories and TV footage this week claiming that Alzheimer鈥檚 patients 鈥渨oke up鈥� and became compos mentis within minutes of being injected in the neck with the anti-arthritis drug etanercept?
Unusually, the treatment doesn鈥檛 target the protein plaques which clog up the brains of people with Alzheimer鈥檚 and are believed to destroy brain tissue. Instead, the aim is to ease brain inflammation, which Edward Tobinick, pioneer of the new treatment at the Institute for Neurological Research in California, thinks is the real cause. He argues that inflammation blocks signalling between brain cells, and that is why getting rid of it has such a dramatic effect.
So will attacking inflammation succeed where combating plaque has failed? 鈥淭his is a tremendous paradigm shift,鈥� Tobinick told New Scientist. 鈥淚t is exciting work and we are just scratching the surface.鈥�
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The UK urged caution. 鈥淲e cannot draw any conclusions until a controlled trial is carried out,鈥� said Susanne Sorensen, the society鈥檚 head of research. New Scientist will publish a fuller report soon.
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