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Transcript:
KCTV5 Anchorman Brad Stephens:
Tonight, KCTV's investigative team reveals one of the most exciting advances in the fight against Alzheimer's disease that the world has ever seen.
Anchorwoman Karen Fuller:
Right now, it's estimated more than 5 million Americans have this debilitating disease and for the first time, scientists believe they could be close to a vaccine.
Statistics show by age 65, one in ten Americans will get Alzheimer's disease. By age 85, half of the U.S. population will have it.
But scientists right now are testing a vaccine right here in the metro. If they are right, we all stand to benefit.
Camera pans to a scene with David Lyon working on fruit in an orchard. Dave Lyons:
This is the worst enemy.
Dayna:
Dave Lyon works long, hard hours inspecting and trimming trees and picking fruit in his peach orchard.
At age 77, the grueling, repetitive work keeps his body and mind in shape, something he has worked at every day, since he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease a decade ago.
Mrs. Carol Lyon:
Knowing what happens down the road and what's to come is very frightening.
Dayna:
In an effort to do anything they can to stop the disease ravaging Dave's brain, the Lyons leave their farm a few times a month and come to the MIDAMERICA Neuroscience Institute in Lanexa.
They are part of a one BILLION dollar world-wide study into an Alzheimer's vaccine. And if scientists are right about the medicine inside of this bag, it could stop the disease from robbing the Lyons of their twilight years.
Dayna Wright interviewing Dr. Dana Winegarner:
How big is this? I mean, this is really big, it seems to me.
Dr. Dana Winegarner:
It's huge. It's huge. In my mind, this is the single most important clinical study yet done in Alzheimer's. It's certainly the largest or one of the largest ever attempted.
Dayna:
Dr. Dana Winegarner is one local physician overseeing the historic global Alzheimer's study and explains it like this:
Images from microscope displayed on screen:
On the left side of your screen, a normal brain image. On the right, an Alzheimer's brain, like Dave's, full of black spots, or amyloid-plaque. It is the hallmark sign of the disease as it progresses.
Camera pans to Dayan interviewing Dr. Winegarner. Dayna asks:
The vaccine gets rid of some of the plaque or gets rid of all of the plaque?
Dr. Winegarner:
As best we can tell, this vaccine, bapineuzumab, eliminates all of the abnormal protein, a-beta 42. It gets rid of all of it and that's what makes up the plaques. So the plaques that are there are dissolved and removed and the abnormal protein is eliminated.
So, if the abnormal protein, the a-beta protein, is the problem, and this vaccine removes the problem, then these patients should theoretically stabilize and not get worse.
"The vaccine could have huge implications for those with family history or those in the earlier stages of Alzheimer's disease."
Dayna:
Simply put, Alzheimer's patients have the amyloid plaque, the IV-drip removes the plaque. The million-dollar question: Is the amyloid plaque the problem?
Neurologist Dr. Jeffrey Burns:
What we don't know is if the plaque drives the disease itself or if it's the smoke, where the fire is somewhere else. If it's the smoke, then removing the smoke does not necessarily put out the fire.
Dayna:
Neurologist Dr. Jeffrey Burns of the University of Kansas School of Medicine has seven patients enrolled in the study.
He says, about two-thirds of the patients across the globe are getting the actual medicine in the bag. The other third are getting a placebo.
By next year, the FDA will go through hundreds of thousands of pages of patient data and decide whether to green-light the vaccine.
Right now, no one knows whether participants like Dave Lyon are getting the real thing or the placebo. But Carol says she has noticed a change in his day-to-day behavior.
Mrs. Carol Lyons:
He's more agreeable, he's more cooperative, he's more loving. And he's more appreciative of everything that's done for him.
Dayna:
The drug won't stop the damage that's already been done but could possibly stop it from getting worse - just in time for the Lyon's 55th wedding anniversary next year.
You might be asking, "Shouldn't the patients all be getting better if the plaque is gone?" Doctors tell us the local patients are far enough along in the progression of their disease that it's difficult to measure what change, if any, is happening.
By next year, results from the study should be in and the FDA will start analyzing the data. A vaccine, if approved, could be as early as three years away and could have huge implications for those with family history or those in the earlier stages of Alzheimer's disease.
Johnson & Johnson seems to be proceeding more cautiously. They are adding new patients to the 4,000 already in trials to treat dementias such as Alzheimer's with bapineuzumab.
Bapineuzumab is a promising potential medication for Alzheimer's and related dementias. It is currently moving forward in phase 3 clinical trials, where dosing adjustments were just made.
An experimental Alzheimer's medication called bapineuzumab just finished an 18-month trial. It appeared to have clinical activity in treating Alzheimer’s, particularly for the many patients not carrying genes associated with Alzheimer's.
