“Although the research focused on a single person, it reverberated through the world of brain science and even got the attention of the (then) acting director of the National Institutes of Health, Lawrence Tabak. “Sometimes careful study of even just one truly remarkable person can lead the way to fascinating discoveries with far-reaching implications,” Tabak wrote in his blog post about the discovery.”
Very cool - they found an extended family in Medellin, Colombia where virtually everyone got early-onset Alzheimer’s. Except for one guy. Studying his genome revealed a variant related to Reelin, and subsequent studies suggest that Reelin is indeed neuroprotective.
> Purified recombinant Reelin was injected bilaterally into the ventricles of wild-type mice. We demonstrate that a single in vivo injection of Reelin increased activation of adaptor protein Disabled-1 and cAMP-response element binding protein after 15 min. These changes correlated with increased dendritic spine density, increased hippocampal CA1 long-term potentiation (LTP), and enhanced performance in associative and spatial learning and memory.
Would expect to see research focused on compounds that increase Reelin expression too, in addition to direct supplementation. A mouse study a couple years later showing nicotine increasing Reelin expression: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23385624/
Nicotine has been really interesting for Dementia or Alzheimer's so this checks out. The one study I know that is ongoing is mindstudy.org. It's well tolerated, cheap, and widely available.
Not a Doctor but if I had a loved one at-risk or experiencing age-related cognitive impairment, it's probably worth trying rather than waiting for scientific consensus which may take years and will probably be blocked by the FDA so some pharma company can develop patented neuro-nicotine or whatever.
That's a funny thought, we experiment on mice, then one day we accidentally create super mice while trying to solve diseases. From that day, it will be the mice who dominate our world.
From my layman's understanding, in the US, it is almost impossible to get FDA approval for drugs that "improve" or "enhance" human biology.
The tl;dr is if you invented a drug tomorrow that stopped human aging, you wouldn't be able to get FDA approval to sell it.
This sadly means that research into how to improve human life and potential are very limited.
An alternative explanation is that it may just be super hard to make into a useful pill or convenient injectable, limiting commercial viability! Most drug companies aren't going to dumping $ into a chemical that may cure a disease but has no practical way to get it to the target site!
> if you invented a drug tomorrow that stopped human aging, you wouldn't be able to get FDA approval to sell it.
Due to the chaos it would kick off, I'm assuming. The FDA just needs to ask themselves "What happens if we OK this?" and if the answer is "I have no idea." they withhold approval.
The almost daily information I'm hearing about Alzheimer's research is reassuring. My wife's grandmother died of it, and her mother is probably in the first 1/4 of its development. Today's gains may be too late to help her, but I'm hoping they will develop into useful treatments before my wife would start developing symptoms.
I'm in a similar boat, Mother, Mother-In-Law, and previously grandparents on both sides suffered from Alzheimer's. Best lead I've come up with is that somehow increasing influx of CSF has a lot of potential. The APOE4 or whatever gene impeded CSF influx, leads to the plaque build up.
I've also seen inulin, and glutathione quite a bit. I had read some about nicotine before as well, but I don't remember reelin specifically.
Cerebrolysin has potential.
But I keep getting back to the CSF influx, and potentially one easy thing that increases CSF influx is sleeping on your side.
Hydration may also be very important. And stay far away from Anticholinergic drugs like diphenhydramine.
HBOT seems like it could also potentially increase CSF influx.
My mom died of it, and at least one of my brothers worries about it a lot. But it's not typically familial, and my mom's parents both lived to their late 80s without any signs of dementia.
My favourite research is that quality nutrition is what you need, however, this means a whole food, plant based diet. What that means is no animal fats or refined animal fats as these have been blocking arteries since the 1950s, or whenever it was that Ancel Keys did his landmark studies that made saturated fats bad.
I am okay with that.
The keto diet community believe that Ancel Keys was not right and that sugar is the enemy that causes all of the problems, probably including blocked brain arteries. The whole food, plant based diet does not include refined sugar, so, hedge your bets by staying off the animal fats and added sugar. By staying off the sugar, that eliminates processed foods that invariably have refined fats and oils such as palm oil and much else that gets saturated in processing.
Humans have been eating animal fat for millenia. Cutting excess sugar is a good plan though. We would have gotten some from fruits and berries but nothing like the quantities that are included in many foods today.
This is so out of touch, having a healthy diet is obviously going to help reduce the risk of getting Alzheimer's disease, but it is in no way the ultimate cure.
I asked ChatGPT which behaviour results in Reelin being present. It's physical exercise, cognitive activities and social interaction. Behaviours that reduce Reelin are stress, drugs and bad nutrition. Maybe it's just correlation.
It amazes me that we do not have a publicly funded initiative to cure death. It makes me incredibly angry and frustrated at both the general populace and the government.
First, the idiocy of the general populace to not prioritize death as a problem when it will inevitably be one for them, their children, and everyone they know; and second, for the government to waste trillions of dollars on useless initiatives when that could instead be invested in curing an ailment that has plagued every human to ever live.
If we cared as much about curing aging and death as we did about investing in even a single fighter jet program, we may well be there by now.
I feel like I live in a clown world where the average person hems and haws over trivial problems when they are literally about to fucking die.
Readit News
Very cool - they found an extended family in Medellin, Colombia where virtually everyone got early-onset Alzheimer’s. Except for one guy. Studying his genome revealed a variant related to Reelin, and subsequent studies suggest that Reelin is indeed neuroprotective.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3166788/
Dead Comment
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3166788/
Published 2011. It's been a while... I wonder what it would take to reach human trials.
Not a Doctor but if I had a loved one at-risk or experiencing age-related cognitive impairment, it's probably worth trying rather than waiting for scientific consensus which may take years and will probably be blocked by the FDA so some pharma company can develop patented neuro-nicotine or whatever.
I welcome our cute new overlords.
The tl;dr is if you invented a drug tomorrow that stopped human aging, you wouldn't be able to get FDA approval to sell it.
This sadly means that research into how to improve human life and potential are very limited.
An alternative explanation is that it may just be super hard to make into a useful pill or convenient injectable, limiting commercial viability! Most drug companies aren't going to dumping $ into a chemical that may cure a disease but has no practical way to get it to the target site!
Drugs must treat disease, and the benefits must outweigh the risks.
With the exception of cosmetic surgery; for some reason Botox's "avoid face wrinkles" somehow outweighs the risk of permanent paralysis.
But this is a treatment for a serious disease, so I'm sure those standards aren't the barrier here.
If there's a drug that improves cognition, it will likely get approved for Alzheimer's.
What is the rationale for this?
Due to the chaos it would kick off, I'm assuming. The FDA just needs to ask themselves "What happens if we OK this?" and if the answer is "I have no idea." they withhold approval.
It wouldn't matter; you'd still be free to sell it as an unregulated supplement. Medical insurance wouldn't cover that, but who cares?
I've also seen inulin, and glutathione quite a bit. I had read some about nicotine before as well, but I don't remember reelin specifically.
Cerebrolysin has potential.
But I keep getting back to the CSF influx, and potentially one easy thing that increases CSF influx is sleeping on your side.
Hydration may also be very important. And stay far away from Anticholinergic drugs like diphenhydramine.
HBOT seems like it could also potentially increase CSF influx.
Don't eat carbs, exercise regularly, thus keep your insulin resistance and overall inflammation low and you won't get Alzheimer's.
I am okay with that.
The keto diet community believe that Ancel Keys was not right and that sugar is the enemy that causes all of the problems, probably including blocked brain arteries. The whole food, plant based diet does not include refined sugar, so, hedge your bets by staying off the animal fats and added sugar. By staying off the sugar, that eliminates processed foods that invariably have refined fats and oils such as palm oil and much else that gets saturated in processing.
"Are you reelin' in the years?
Stowin' away the time"
These mice have a mutation in the Reelin gene that causes them to move as if they were dancing a reel!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reeler
Remove "and I" to figure out whether to use He or Him, and remove "He and" to figure out when to use "& I" or "& me".
https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(23)006...
Reelin seems to also decrease obesity and hunger. Sounds like a wonder drug.
And then if they cure death I guess I'll be pissed off forever.
First, the idiocy of the general populace to not prioritize death as a problem when it will inevitably be one for them, their children, and everyone they know; and second, for the government to waste trillions of dollars on useless initiatives when that could instead be invested in curing an ailment that has plagued every human to ever live.
If we cared as much about curing aging and death as we did about investing in even a single fighter jet program, we may well be there by now.
I feel like I live in a clown world where the average person hems and haws over trivial problems when they are literally about to fucking die.
Steely Dan tried to tell us. We just didn't listen.