This is a story about courage, hope and love -- Terry Moran, Nightline....By Bob DeMarco
Alzheimer's Reading Room
The video below is from ABC Nightline. It shows the second patient ever to enter a new and radically different clinical trial for Alzheimer's disease.
The video focuses on Rick Smith, his brain surgery, and a new a gene therapy designed to deliver nerve growth factor (NGF) to the brain for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD).
If you watch the video and are patient, you will see a small but important change in Rich Smith that filled me with hope that a possible cure or treatment for Alzheimer's disease might be on the way. The video includes the entire segment as it was shown on ABCs Nightline.
Gene therapy is radically different from clinical trials that are searching for a medication or vaccine for treatment of Alzheimer's disease.
The gene therapy is being investigated in a Phase II clinical study of Ceregene's CERE-110. CERE is a gene therapy product designed to deliver nerve growth factor (NGF) to the brain for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD).
This is a very early stage clinical trial, so there is a long way to go.
What has happened in the past does not have any direct effect on this trial or any new clinical trials that are now ongoing.
In my opinion, every failed clinical trial advances the science in its own way. Disappointing yes, a waste of time, money and effort, no.
If you don't see the video -- go here.
To learn more about the clinical trial, get the eligibility requirement, and find out if the trial is available in a location near you -- go here.
Every Alzheimer's caregiver should be looking into clinical trials that are available in the area of their home.
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Bob DeMarco is the Founder of the Alzheimer's Reading Room and an Alzheimer's caregiver. Bob has written more than 1,880 articles with more than 95,100 links on the Internet. Bob resides in Delray Beach, FL.
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Original content Bob DeMarco, the Alzheimer's Reading Room
