The Strident Centrist Blog

A piece in Science Daily describes a study in which a drug approved by the FDA for other purposes was administered to Alzheimer’s disease patients with startling results:

The authors hypothesized that elevated levels of TNF in Alzheimer’s disease interfere with this regulation [of neural impulses in the brain]. To reduce elevated TNF, the authors gave patients an injection of an anti-TNF therapeutic called etanercept. Excess TNF-alpha has been documented in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with Alzheimer’s. . . The new study documents a dramatic and unprecedented therapeutic effect in an Alzheimer’s patient: improvement within minutes following delivery of perispinal etanercept, which is etanercept given by injection in the spine. Etanercept (trade name Enbrel) binds and inactivates excess TNF. Etanercept is FDA approved to treat a number of immune-mediated disorders and is used off label in the study.

. . .

“It is unprecedented that we can see cognitive and behavioral improvement in a patient with established dementia within minutes of therapeutic intervention,” said [Dr. Sue] Griffin [director of research at the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS)]. “It is imperative that the medical and scientific communities immediately undertake to further investigate and characterize the physiologic mechanisms involved. This gives all of us in Alzheimer’s research a tremendous new clue about new avenues of research, which is so exciting and so needed in the field of Alzheimer’s. Even though this report predominantly discusses a single patient, it is of significant scientific interest because of the potential insight it may give into the processes involved in the brain dysfunction of Alzheimer’s.”

This is a development to watch.

You may remember this famous picture taken by Luis Sinco, who was embedded with the Marines during the Battle of Fallujah three years ago this month. Although he didn’t even know the name of the Marine at the time, Mr. Sinco has since become former Lance Corporal Blake Miller’s most stalwart support as he deals with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Here’s the story in Luis Sinco’s own words in the Guardian Online. It’s futile to try to excerpt anything from this story and do it justice. Read the whole moving thing. (h/t to Abu Muqawama)

Michele Bachmann, the embarrassing first-term wingnutwoman who represents Minnesota’s Sixth Congressional District (roughly the arc of far-northern Twin City suburbs plus the rapidly growing St. Cloud corridor stretching 90 miles to the northwest; PDF map here) finds that the shoe is not so comfortable when it’s on the other foot. After winning office with a lavishly funded campaign against Patty Wetterling that featured misleading and outright falascious negative ads, she now is upset by the fact that she finds herself on the other end of an uncomfortably truthful TV pitch, sponsored by Americans United, regarding her support of Bush’s veto of the S-CHIP bill. Eric Black of Minnesota Monitor has the details of the letter she had her chief of staff send to the TC area TV stations asking that the ad be withdrawn. Via the link in the MM piece to his blog you can find his deconstructions of some of Bachmann’s below-the-belt hits against Wetterling.

From CNN. The headline: “Man kissed ailing wife, threw her off balcony, prosecutors say.” The details:

The body of Criste Reimer, 47, was found Tuesday night outside the apartment building, near the upscale Country Club Plaza shopping district.

Stanley Reimer, 51, appeared dazed when authorities arrived. He was taken away from the scene by ambulance.

. . .

According to Jackson County Probate Court records, Criste Reimer had been in ill health for several years. Her weight had fallen to 75 pounds and she was partly blind.

According to the court records, she had no health insurance to pay for medical bills that ranged from $700 to $800 per week.

We’ll no doubt see many creative ways in which 12 guage long term care is provided here in the good ol’ USA in the coming years.