Research findings offer hope for treating Alzheimers

Dr. Charles P. Gennaula reviews a patients file with certified nurse practitioner Patty Zamiska in his office in Belle Vernon. Photo By:Jim McNutt/Observer-Reporter

Marlene Oreski said she welcomes breakthrough research this year by Harvard stem-cell scientists, something that offers hope for treating Alzheimers disease. But it wouldnt benefit her mother.

It certainly is good news, said Marlene, a retired Carroll Township schoolteacher, in response to news in March that the researchers, Tracy Young-Pearse and Christina Muratore, had created the types of neurons that are damaged by the disease from skin cells of patients with early-onset Alzheimers.

Marlene said her mother, Helen Oreski, 93, was diagnosed with dementia more than a year ago, and its symptoms have worsened to the point where she now has problems with mobility and recognizing her relatives.

It would be too late for her, Marlene said, speaking of any better dementia or Alzheimers medication that could come out of new research findings.

The Harvard study could lead to developing improved treatment regimens for Alzheimers before those who are at risk for the disease begin to exhibit its symptoms, much like how physicians treat heart disease early with high blood pressure medication, said Eric McDade, a UPMC neurologist in Pittsburgh,

We have to be cautiously optimistic, but we have reason to be hopeful, McDade said.

The hope is to develop a model that mimics Alzheimers and to be able to draft treatments quicker, he said.

He said the research could speed up the time it takes for the Federal Drug Administration to approve Alzheimers drugs.

Another breakthrough in research announced last month, also known as Alzheimers in a dish, involved Boston researchers Doo Yeon Kim and Rudolph E. Tanzi figuring out how to grow human brain cells in a gel and watch them develop structures of the disease in a petri dish.

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Research findings offer hope for treating Alzheimers