Week of October 12 - October 18, 2008

The following video gives an inspiring look at Fred Ruekert's participation in a clinical trial in his fight against Alzheimer's. A transcript appears below the video.

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Fred Ruekert with his wife, Irene.

Eighteen million people worldwide are affected by Alzheimer's disease and that number is expected to triple in the next 30 years. Now researchers around the world, including those in Seattle, are testing an investigational drug that works in an entirely different way to clear out plaque in the brain.

Two-and-a-half years ago, 56-year-old Fred Ruekert was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, a disease that took his father in his 60s and his brother at age 57. Ruekert's wife says she saw the warning signs.

"There definitely was a shift in his personality that made it recognizable here," said Irene Ruekert.

Fred Ruekert worries not only about himself but also about his six children.

"If they could take my brain and take it apart and figure out what's wrong and cure everybody that'd be great. I'd say, 'Take me now,'" he said.

Fred Ruekert is part of a phase three trial to test a therapeutic antibody designed to target beta amyloid, an abnormal protein in the brain that's linked to Alzheimer's.

"This is the first line of medications which potentially can be a modifying agent, instead of medications which we have right now available, which are more symptomatic treatments," said Dr. Malgorzata Franczak, neurologist.

Dr. Franczak says although it's too soon to know what affect this new drug will have on the brain, she's excited about the possibilities.

"Not only again slow down the progression of the disease, but actually arrest the disease, stop the progression of the disease, or maybe reverse some of the changes which have already occurred in patients' brain," said Dr. Franczak.

Irene Ruekert hopes for more time with her husband.

"If this one doesn't work, we'll look for the next one and find something that does. He's too young to have this happen, to be gone," said Irene Ruekert. "I want to grow old together and that's what I want the opportunity to do with him."

Researchers around the world are recruiting more than 1,200 volunteers for the Alzheimer's drug trial. Patients must be between 50 and 88 years old, have a diagnosis of mild to moderate Alzheimer's and have a caregiver willing to participate in the study.

MORE INFORMATION:

Alzheimer's ICARA Study Web site

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