A 2006 study by MetLife found that adults over age 55 fear Alzheimer’s disease more than cancer, and with good reason. Alzheimer’s creeps up on patients and their families, robbing more than half of all Americans over age 85 of their memory and ability to care for themselves. But what is perhaps most frightening is that available treatments for the disease are by and large ineffective.
Research from Georgetown University several years ago suggested that a new class of anti-Alzheimer’s molecule, spirostenols, might undo some of the characteristic pathophysiology of Alzheimer-affected brains. Further testing showed that one such molecule, Caprospinol, actually reversed the course of an Alzheimer-like condition induced in rats. Today, Samaritan Pharmaceuticals (Las Vegas, NV), is gearing up for human clinical studies with this compound, also known as SP-233.
