Blood from young people does little to reverse Alzheimer’s in first test
By Jocelyn KaiserNov. 1, 2017 , 12:40 PM
The first rigorous clinical test of whether blood plasma donated by healthy young people can help reverse Alzheimer’s disease in older adults has found that the treatment produced minimal, if any, benefits.
Caregivers for 16 people with mild or moderate Alzheimer’s disease reported that their charges performed slightly better at daily tasks after receiving weekly injections of young plasma, according to the abstract of a talk to be presented on Saturday at the 10th Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease meeting in Boston. But the patients did no better on cognitive tests administered by researchers—a crucial standard for whether the treatment had a significant impact. All the same, the sponsor of the trial—startup company Alkahest in San Carlos, California, is “encouraged” to run more trials, says CEO Karoly Nikolich.
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/11/blood-young-people-does-little-reverse-alzheimer-s-first-test
