ScienceDaily (Jan. 9, 2008) — An extraordinary new scientific study, which for the first time documents marked improvement in Alzheimer’s disease within minutes of administration of a therapeutic molecule, has just been published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation.
[...] The new study documents a dramatic and unprecedented therapeutic effect in an Alzheimer’s patient: improvement within minutes following delivery of perispinal etanercept, which is etanercept given by injection in the spine. Etanercept (trade name Enbrel) binds and inactivates excess TNF. Etanercept is FDA approved to treat a number of immune-mediated disorders and is used off label in the study.
And because the drug is already approved for other uses, I’m pretty sure they can start using it on patients immediately.
Thanks for posting this. My son has Downs Syndrome and there a lot of medical correlations between DS and Alzhemeirs, so of course I wonder if this has any therapeutic implications for my son and others with DS. Elevated tnf-a has been noted in DS as well.
Administration via the spine could kill for this use. It requires a medical procedure and could become infected if not VERY carefully maintained.