Alzheimer's patients hopeful for new drug

Dean DeMoe’s rare, inherited strain of Alzheimer’s could be key to creating a healing drug for the 10 million Americans predicted to be in danger of developing Alzheimer’s by 2050.

International scientists have been conducting a drug study on dozens of families suffering from the inherited form of the disease. These families and others came to Washington, D.C., this week to ask questions about the progress toward finding a treatment for their condition.

“It’s time to ease our anguish,” said Tal Cohen, whose 37-year-old wife is already in the mild to moderate stage of Alzheimer’s.

The study is called the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network (DIAN). The disease it tracks, inherited Alzheimer’s, accounts for less than 1 percent of cases worldwide. Families affected have the gene with the Alzheimer’s mutation in their bloodline, and symptoms usually strike when a patient is still middle-aged. Sufferers have a 50 percent chance of passing the disease to their children.

DeMoe and four of his siblings inherited the disease. His grandmother, father, and siblings all came down with the disease in their 40s and 50s. DeMoe is 53 now, working with an oil company, and already experiencing mild cognitive impairment.

But he’s hopeful about the DIAN study: “It might not do good for me … but it’s important for my family and for everyone.”

The study tracks the health of the mutant gene carriers as their symptoms appear. Scientists hope to learn how to predict who will come down with Alzheimer’s early, so they can at least try to stall the disease before it becomes worse.

Researchers are checking saliva and spinal fluids and using MRI scans to detect shrinking brain regions. Recently they discovered brain changes could precede the first memory problems by 20 years.

The DIAN study also is testing two experimental drugs that might stall the disease for years in the gene carriers. But the scientists at this week’s conference would not tell the attendees whether the drugs were working or not.

Cohen is hopeful the drugs will soon be able to help his wife.

“We don’t have any more time to wait and see,” he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.