Good News on Alzheimer's.

And.....saving the world from asteroid strikes.

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1. Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia, affects people in markedly different ways but it has not diminished Anne Warburton’s sense of humor. “You have to make the most of your life,” said the former librarian from Bedfordshire. “I have a ridiculous sense of humor and that is a godsend. I think it helps tremendously.” She also has more reason than most people with dementia to be cheerful. She is one of just 20 people in the world — only four of them in Britain — to be part of a trial for a radical new gene-silencing treatment for Alzheimer’s. Working like the dimmer switch on an electric light, the treatment dials down the gene which produces the proteins that cause Alzheimer’s. Interim results of a phase one trial of the drug, published quietly at a medical conference in Amsterdam last month, suggest a single dose of the treatment — known for now merely as ALN-APP — reduces levels of amyloid precursor protein by up to 90 per cent. Even after six months, tests showed that levels were still an average 65 per cent lower. The constituent parts of this protein clump into the toxic sticky plaques that clog the brain and cause the memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s. (Source: thetimes.co.uk)