UC San Diego Seeks Patients to Help Test New Treatment for Alzheimer's Disease

The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) is looking for patients to help test a therapy designed to slow down Alzheimer's disease and perhaps improve memory, reports the San Diego Union Tribune . The three-year Phase 1 clinical trial of 12 patients and 12 controls will involve a form of gene therapy that will be used for the first time in humans, with subjects to be administered the genetically altered protein known was brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Healthy BDNF will be implanted within a harmless virus that will transmit the protein to specific areas of the brain where it might have a beneficial effect. The therapy will only target degenerating cells to avoid inducing possible side effects. "We are hoping that the BDNF protein will slow down or stop cell death, literally build new connections between cells in the brain and, as a result, slow down memory loss or actually improve memory," said USCD's Mark Tuszynski. He added that the process has been successful in rats, mice, and monkeys. "If in the first half of the study BDNF is shown to be safe in Alzheimer's patients we will then go on to see if it is also safe in patients with even earlier stages of memory loss, patients with mild cognitive impairment," Tuszynski noted.