WEDNESDAY, July 30 (HealthDay News)-- New reports on very different approaches to treating Alzheimer's disease could one day lead to better therapies for the mind-robbing condition, experts say.

A trio of studies that were presented Wednesday at the Alzheimer's Association 2008 International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease in Chicago noted progress made on three different treatment fronts.

The first involves a drug called Dimebon, with positive results being reported from tests in Russia. Dimebon is an antihistamine, and data from the Russian trials indicated that Dimebon might have value in treating Alzheimer's.

This buttressed American research reported earlier this year that showed improvements in Alzheimer's patients given Dimebon in a controlled study. The drug is believed to prevent the death of brain cells.

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, studied 183 people who had mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease. Mental function remained stable in those taking the drug, while it declined in those given a placebo. Mental function also stabilized in people who were first given a placebo after they began taking Dimebon.

Another trial used the body's immune system to prevent the mental deterioration suffered by people with Alzheimer's disease. The immune attack is aimed at the deposits of beta-amyloid protein that accumulate in the brains of patients.

"The idea has been around for almost a decade now," Nixon. "The initial notion was to use the vaccine approach to prevent amyloid deposition, injecting amyloid so the body would attack the deposits. Now we are into phase two, injecting the antibody itself."

Researchers at Eli Lilly & Co. reported on 52 people with mild to moderate Alzheimer's. Some were given weekly injections of a monoclonal antibody that binds to beta amyloid, while others were injected with a placebo.

Detailed measurements showed an increased level of beta amyloid in both blood and cerebrospinal fluid after 12 weeks in those getting the antibody, an indication that the beta amyloid in the brain might be starting to dissolve, the researchers said. New studies of the therapy are planned.

Nixon viewed the results with "tempered optimism." One interesting finding was the response to the therapy was greatest in people who did not have a known genetic marker for Alzheimer's risk, he said. "What is the significance of this? Why do carriers not respond?" Nixon asked. The answer might help explain Alzheimer's disease better, he said.

A third study using a broad spectrum of antibodies was reported by a team at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. The treatment, originally developed by Baxter International to treat autoimmune conditions, was given to 24 people with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease in a set of trials extending as long as 18 months. Statistically significant increases in mental function were seen in those getting the treatment, the researchers said. A large-scale, 18-month follow-up trial will be done.

More information

Learn more about Alzheimer's from the Alzheimer's Association  .

TUESDAY, July 29 (HealthDay News) -- Aging hinders the consolidation of memories during sleep, a process that's crucial for the conversion of fresh memories into long-term ones, say University of Arizona researchers.

The researchers recorded activity in the hippocampus -- a brain region involved in learning and memory -- in 11 young and 11 old rats as they navigated mazes for food rewards. The rats' hippocampal activity was recorded again when they slept.

In the young rats, the sequence of neural activity recorded while they navigated the mazes was repeated while they slept. This was not the case in most of the older rats.

The researchers also found that among both young and old rats, those with the best sleep replay performed the best in their age groups on spatial memory tasks.

"This is the first study to suggest that an animal's ability to perform a spatial memory task may be related to the brain's ability to perform memory consolidation during sleep," study author Carol Barnes said in a Society for Neuroscience news release.

The study is in the July 30 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.

"These findings suggest that some of the memory impairment experienced during aging could involve a reduction in the automatic process of experience replay," Michael Hasselmo, of Boston University, said in a Society for Neuroscience news release.

Identifying the specific memory deficit in the brains of older adults may be the first step to preventing age-related memory loss, he said.

"This study's findings could inspire the development and testing of pharmacological agents designed to enhance memory replay phenomena," Hasselmo said.

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about age-related memory loss  .

MONDAY, June 23 (HealthDay News) -- In 2005, traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) due to falls resulted in nearly 8,000 deaths and 56,000 hospitalizations among Americans age 65 and older, according to a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study.

TBIs accounted for 50 percent of all unintentional fall deaths and 8 percent of nonfatal fall-related hospitalizations among older adults.

As people age, their risk of falling increases due to a number of factors such as mobility problems due to muscle weakness or poor balance, loss of sensation in feet, chronic health problems, vision changes or loss, medication side effects or drug interactions, and domestic hazards such as clutter and poor lighting, according to background information in the study.

"Most people think older adults may only break their hip when they fall, but our research shows that traumatic brain injuries can also be a serious consequence. These injuries can cause long-term problems and affect how someone thinks or functions. They can also impact a person's emotional well-being," Dr. Ileana Arias, director of the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, said in a prepared statement.

TBIs, caused by a blow or bump to the head, may be missed or misdiagnosed among older adults.

In this study, researchers analyzed data from the National Center for Health Statistics' National Vital Statistics System and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Nationwide Inpatient Sample.

Among the findings:

• Men had higher fall-related TBI death rates than women -- 26.9 per 100,000 vs. 17.8 per 100,000.
• The rate of fall-related TBI hospitalization for men was 146.3 per 100,000, compared to 158.3 per 100,000 for women.
• Death and hospitalization rates for fall-related TBIs generally increased with age.
• Most men (54.9 percent) and women (61.5 percent) hospitalized with a fall-related TBI spent two to six days in hospital.
• The median charges for these hospitalizations were $19,191 for men and $16,006 for women.

The study was published in the June issue of the Journal of Safety Research.

As more baby boomers reach retirement age, the increasing number of fall-related TBIs will become more of a burden on the health care system unless action is taken to prevent such injuries, Arias said.

In the United States, falls are the leading cause of injury deaths and nonfatal injuries for people 65 and older. Each year, about one in three Americans age 65 and older suffers a fall, and 30 percent of falls cause injuries that require medical treatment. In 2005, nearly 16,000 older adults in the United States died from falls, 1.8 million were treated in emergency departments, and 433,000 were hospitalized.

More information

The CDC has more about preventing brain injuries in seniors.