Could Data Mining Help Scientists Discover a Cure for Alzheimer's Disease?

The search for new drugs and treatments for Alzheimer's disease has been like the search for the holy grail.While Alzheimer's science is advancing -every single clinical trial over the last 14 years has failed to produce a single successful new drug.One of the biggest problems is thatAlzheimer's patients tend to decline at different rates. For some the cognitive decline is more pronounced, and for some the disease progresses more slowly.This indicates there aremany subgroups within the overall patient population.5 Best Memory Tests for Alzheimer's and DementiaSubscribe to the Alzheimer's Reading RoomEmail:Scientists Use New Data Mining Strategy to Spot Those at High Alzheimer ’s RiskMethod could group similar Alzheimer ’s patients for more precise drug trialsThe search to develop treatments for Alzheimer ’s disease has been a promising and disappointing endeavor over the past two decades. Results are yielding a greater understanding of the disease yet still fail to generate successful new drugs.Researchers are hypothesizing that the many undefined sub-types of mild cognitive impairment could explain why scientists are missing the mark in the search for a new and effective drug.“Everyone thinks Alzheimer ’s is one disease, but it’s not. There are many subgroups. If you enroll all different types of people in a trial, but your drug is targeting only one biological pathway, of course the people who don ’t have that abnormality are not going to respond to the d...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - Category: Neurology Tags: Alzheimers Dementia alzheimers population alzheimers research alzheimers treatment alzread care of dementia patients cure alzheimers health life news science Source Type: blogs