The challenges that Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pose for healthcare systems as the baby-boom generation ages have been identified in expert reports and testimony before Congress. AD is the leading cause of dementia in the elderly, afflicting an estimated four million people in the United States alone. This figure is expected to rise to 14 million or more as the baby-boom generation ages if no effective treatment is found. However, the treatments now available, even though they are important advances, do not yet address its underlying causes.
       Nymox Pharmaceutical Corporation is pursuing a three-pronged strategy against AD that targets the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of AD according to Dr. Michael Munzar, the company’s Medical Director. The company recently reported that its underlying activities in drug discovery, drug distribution, toxicology, and chemical analysis have passed important milestones.
       Nymox reported on its groundbreaking research into spherotoxins at the 4th Manhattan Alzheimer’s Disease Conference on May 27 in New York City. The company presented data showing that the newly discovered spherotoxin material is present in toxic concentrations in the brain. The spherotoxin substance is a newly delineated molecular “culprit” for much of the damage in the brains of patients with AD. Spherotoxin is present in high concentrations in spherons, which have been implicated in AD pathogenesis. The amount of spherotoxin in the brain was found to be approximately 100 times more than the concentration that produced significant nerve cell death in tissue culture and animal experiments.
       AlzheimAlert™ is designed to aid physicians in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, the leading cause of dementia in the elderly. It is the only commercially available test that uses noninvasive urine samples. The company recently announced that it has successfully developed a new kit for its AlzheimAlert test for export to foreign markets. Nymox currently offers AlzheimAlert to physicians in the US through its Clinical Reference Laboratory in Maywood, New Jersey, at a cost of $295.
       For more information about Nymox, visit http://www.nymox.com, e-mail info@nymox.com, or call (800) 936-9669.