“We are hoping to enhance memory and learning in those with Down syndrome,” said Alberto Costa, MD, Ph.D., an associate professor of medicine and the neuroscientist leading the effort. “We have been studying this drug for three years and are now ready to analyze the data on our trial. Our team at the University of Colorado and Children’s Hospital Colorado expects to have the results in the next two or three months.”
"Hoping to enhance memory and learning in those with Down syndrome"
As explained in detail in an article in the New York Times Magazine this past weekend, Down syndrome is the result of such a complex over-representation of genetic material (an extra chromasome containing some 500 genes in each and every cell in the body), that scientists had long despaired of ever finding meaningful treatment or cure.
However, recent developments in genetics and other realms of science have opened the door to some interesting possibilities.
For one thing, Down syndrome has come to be closely associated with Alzheimer's disease. Another huge development was the creation in the 1980s of a mouse exhibiting many characteristics of Down syndrome.
Enter Dr. Costa. The drug he is currently testing is Memantine, which was approved for use in treating Alzheimer's in Europe in 2002 and the U.S. in 2003. The same drug, under the name Ebixa, has been conditionally approved by Health Canada for treatment of moderate and severe Alzheimer's.
More information on Memantine as an Alzheimer drug can be found here.
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