The Cure to Alzheimer's: A Medical Mystery

 Richael Lamendola 

Professor Horgan 

HST 401

3 May 2023

The Cure to Alzheimer’s: A Medical Mystery

We’ve all seen them: the cliché movies and the overused episode plot where the main character develops a temporary spell of amnesia, often in an attempt to learn some valuable life lesson. After a few days – or maybe even a week – of desperately trying to retrieve their memories, eventually they manage to recover their recollection, gain whatever essential wisdom they were lacking, and continue on with their normal life. 

But what happens when the main character doesn’t figure out how to get their memory back? What happens if they have to live the rest of their life stuck in a constant state of confusion, never remembering the people around them and incapable of making new memories? 

This is the unfortunate reality for someone suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. 

Defined by the Alzheimer’s Association, or AA, as “a type of dementia that affects memory, thinking and behavior,” this illness affects almost 7 million Americans ages 65 and older. With rates expected to grow to 13 million by 2050, the drive to find a successful cure is climbing – devastatingly unsteadily and problematic, unfortunately. In a breakdown of the facts and figures of the disease, AA discloses, “As the size of the U.S. population age 65 and older continues to grow, so too will the number and proportion of Americans with Alzheimer’s or other dementias.” Between the years 2000 and 2019, deaths from Alzheimer’s have more than doubled, killing more than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined, with 1 in 3 seniors dying with Alzheimer’s. 

Despite these horrifying statistics, the true severity of Alzheimer’s is not often known. As the granddaughter of two grandparents diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, I have witnessed – first-hand – the true severity of this disease, and it goes far beyond the over-simplified, stereotypical depiction of slight, temporary memory loss. 

Back in 2007, my dad’s mother, Lucille, moved in with my family and me. She was your traditional New York Italian woman – loud and proud – and she made sure everyone knew. Because I was relatively young when she moved in with us, I don’t have very many memories from before Alzheimer's took over, but I remember almost everything from then on, until she eventually passed away in 2012. Towards the end of her life, she stopped talking completely and was no longer loud and proud. It was as if Alzheimer’s had stripped her of every trait that made her, herself. 

In 2020, during the peak of COVID-19, my mom’s mother, Mary, moved in with us. Over the last 3 years, I’ve watched her memory fade, to the point where she no longer knows who I am most days. I watched – helplessly – as two of the most important women in my life deteriorated into shells of the people they once were. In a way, I felt robbed, and so I turned to science to answer my one burning question: Is there a cure to Alzheimer’s?

To understand the complexity of this disease, it is important to understand the stages of the illness. While there is some debate on how many stages there are, most include the same 4 basic stages: preclinical, mild, moderate, and severe. The preclinical stage is when the brain begins to undergo physical changes, and is often before the onset of outward dementia symptoms. Next is the mild stage, which is characterized by poor judgment, repeating questions, losing or misplacing items, etc. Moderate symptoms begin to severely impair the person’s behavior and include indicators, such as withdrawal from social activities, wandering, and hallucinations. Eventually, the person may advance to the severe level: unable to communicate, unaware of surroundings, and sometimes incapable of controlling bodily functions, such as bladder control. 

When I first began researching Alzheimer’s years ago, treatments seemed promising and it looked as if progress towards a cure was being made. Drugs, including Aducanumab and Lecanemab, were available – and still are – to treat disease progression and slow the decline of memory and thinking. Separate medications – Donepezil, Galantamine, Suvorexant, etc. – were manufactured to directly treat the cognitive and non-cognitive (behavioral) symptoms, such as insomnia. Alternative treatments and supplements include general healthy lifestyle habits, such as healthy diet and exercise. These suggestions, however, are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not considered official treatments. As reported by the Alzheimer’s Association, “There is no single food, ingredient, or supplement that has been shown to prevent, treat, or cure Alzheimer’s.”

Although seemingly promising, advancements in researching a cure for Alzheimer’s came to a screeching halt earlier this year. 

In 2009, Marc Tessier-Lavigne – now the current president of Stanford University – published what was called a ‘miracle paper.’ It claimed to identify a protein named Death Receptor 6 – otherwise known as DR6 – that was responsible for the neurodegeneration that occurs in Alzheimer’s disease. This research sparked tons of excitement and led to the development of many of the aforementioned treatments. 

However, on February 17, 2023, The Stanford Daily, Stanford’s student newspaper, published an article titled, “Internal Review Found ‘Falsified Data’ in Stanford President’s Alzheimer’s Research, Colleagues Allege.” The article, written by freshman Theo Baker, stirred major public discussion and revealed that the 2009 paper was suspected to include a photoshopped image, pictured to the right.* American medical-oriented news site, STATnews, reported, “The image in question is a western blot, which is used to determine the presence of specific proteins in biological                       *Above is the alleged photoshopped image

samples…The western blot…is key to supporting the paper’s findings about how these protein complexes guide the direction of the growth of axons.” Essentially, the western blot analyses were used to assess certain blood biomarkers for Alzheimer’s Disease, which showed promising results in the screening, diagnosis, and treatment for the illness. After years of further research following the publication of the ‘miracle paper,’ Genentech – the biotech company researching Alzheimer’s – was unable to reproduce the results of the original study, leading to further speculation of image manipulation. 

With these new accusations arising from multiple sources, it would seem that all previous research for Alzheimer’s is defective. But is it that simple? 

As of April 2023, Science.org reports, “The legal team found no evidence that any employees had observed or knew of wrongdoing, that any misconduct complaint about the Nature paper had been filed at Genentech, or that a research misconduct investigation of the study took place there, the report found.” After interviewing several previous and current Genentech employees, the investigation came to a dead stop. While Tessier-Lavigne denies allegations of photo manipulation and research misconduct, legal teams are still working to uncover the truth. 

In either case, whether the research was fraudulent or not, the end result is still the same – there is no true cure for Alzheimer’s, as of today. In an interview with the director of Palliative Care and Geriatric Services for St. Joseph’s Health, Dr. Shahreen Panarotto, she revealed that treatments have not proven to be successful enough and are unable to produce significant results. In regards to the recent allegations against Tessier- Lavigne, she notes that – oftentimes – scientists face immense pressure to publish remarkable discoveries, which may tempt researchers to exaggerate data in an attempt to build their reputation in the scientific world. 

 Watching the cruelty of Alzhieimer’s disease strip away the memory of my grandmothers, it is saddening to know that scientists are not any closer to finding a cure. With such a complicated and devastating illness, it is essential that proper research and funding be allocated to this cause. I can only hope that advancements in finding a cure are on the horizon, but for now my burning question remains just that for scientists: Is there a cure for Alzheimer’s?

Citations

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