108th Congress

Breakthroughs in Alzheimer’s Research: News You Use – Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee on Aging

VA Research on Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease and Diabetes – Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee on Aging (Senator Christopher Bond [R-MO], Chairman)

May 11, 2004

Witnesses:

• Dr. Richard Hodes, Director, NIH

This was a very positive hearing. Both the Committee Chair, Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) and Ranking Member, Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) are supporters of Alzheimer’s research and they were very interested in what the witnesses had to report. Senator Mikulski’s father suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for many years before he passed away.

Dr. Hodes gave an overview of the current status of Alzheimer’s research. First, he discussed the information being learned about the risk factors, the first merely being age itself. Other risk factors include a genetic link and Type II diabetes. He explained that research is currently underway trying to look at whether aggressive treatment of Type II diabetes helps to delay onset of Alzheimer’s. He then talked about the promise of imaging and reported that a neuroimaging initiative will begin in August 2004. According to Dr. Hodes,“The greatest utility of this, potentially, is to provide us an opportunity to identify individuals with disease and to trace progress of treatment by looking at alterations in the brain rather than to wait until they are manifesting symptoms. That’s potentially accelerating the pace of developing new and effective interventions.” He also reported that there are a large number of interventions under study, including a study being done with gingko biloba. NIA is conducting this study, the largest current clinical study of plant drugs, in collaboration with the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

All three of the other witnesses talked about the importance of early diagnosis and treatment, and the hope of neuroimaging. Dr. Rabins and Mr. McConnell also focused on the fact that exercise, both physical and mental, as well as eating a healthy diet, the same message being told to people to prevent heart disease, may also delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. The Alzheimer’s Association has launched a Maintain Your Brain campaign to get this message out to baby boomers.

During the rounds of questioning, Senator Bond asked all panelists what is most important to improve the quality of care for the elderly. All responded that education about the disease is critical because early intervention is important in treating the disease. Too often families do not seek help until the disease has caused a “crises” situation, and then the disease has caused a significant amount of damage to the brain. There was also a discussion about funding. Senator Mikulski followed up on the fact that Drs. Morris, Rabins and Mr. McConnnel all mentioned that more funding is needed for Alzheimer’s research. Mr. Morris stated that the Alzheimer’s Association is asking that research on the disease be increased a mere $40 million. She asked Dr. Hodes about funding and he responded that the doubling of the NIH budget contributed a great deal to the research on Alzheimer’s. Senator Mikulski said that she would discuss the funding issue with Senators Specter and Harkin. Lastly, Senator Mikulski wanted to hear more about the gingko study. Dr. Stephen Strauss reported that the study has been fully enrolled for a year and a half and the rate of Alzheimer’s is less than they had expected. They are going to extend the study longer to get an end point.