News in Brief
July 1997
in “
The Lancet
”
TLDR A new protein linked to Alzheimer's was discovered, and a hair loss treatment showed effectiveness but had some sexual side effects.
In a study of Alzheimer's disease (AD), a new protein, AMY117, was identified by John Trojanowski's team at the University of Pennsylvania's Alzheimer's Disease Center. This protein was found to be abundant and highly specific to AD, present in the brains of individuals with AD and Down's syndrome, but rare or absent in controls and other neurodegenerative diseases. This discovery could lead to new diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets for AD. In a separate study, Keith Kaufman from Merck Research Laboratories reported that oral finasteride showed promising results in treating male-pattern baldness. In phase III trials involving 1,879 men aged 18-41 with androgenic alopecia, finasteride treatment resulted in an average increase of 14.0 non-vellus hairs per cm² over 12 months, compared to a decrease of 2.3 hairs per cm² in the placebo group. However, a small percentage of treated men experienced decreased libido and erectile dysfunction.
