For the work I do in lab (testing anti-inflammatory drugs in in vitro neural models) I did some research into etanercept when the first paper was published.
Etanercept works roughly by cleaning up that TNF-alpha which is plaqued around in Alzheimer's. It was FDA approved as an arthritis drug which (and I don't fully understand this part) allows doctors to attempt novel treatments using it without much further FDA approval.
Etanercept really does appear to cure the symptoms of Alzheimer's, quickly. The real issues are long-term effects for this sort of treatment and whether cleaning up the TNF-alpha actually does anything for fixing the causes of Alzheimer's.
Safety
After a number of studies and reports of adverse reactions in patients receiving anti-TNF alpha therapy (including serious and sometimes fatal blood disorders, infections, rare reports of lymphoma and solid tissue cancers, rare reports of serious liver injury, and rare reports of demyelinating central nervous system disorders), rare reports of congestive heart failure, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning to doctors appearing in the respective product labeling of these drugs instructing them to screen and monitor potential patients more carefully. [7]
I have no idea how they claim to reverse this condition, but it seems at least plausible that it can prevent it, as the stated goal seems to be to mitigate swelling which is symptomatic of Alzheimer's.
I understood it to be something like a protein plaque that forms in the brain. The plaque shows up in cross sections looking like tar -- it's surprising the brain can function at all, having been altered that much.
Which makes it all the weirder that this treatment targets inflammation, allegedly. If the drug instantly melted the plaque, opening up the old synapses again, I could believe that. Maybe it does. Medical companies don't always understand exactly why their product works before starting trials.
Also noteworthy: it says a few patients have been on the treatment for several months, implying that the effect might be temporary. No mention of habituation, a la L-DOPA.
I don't know much about the way Alzheimer's impacts the brain to know if it can be reversed, but the brain has been shown to be pretty good at adapting so I wouldn't be surprised if there was a way to cure advanced Alzheimer's. I definitely hope this treatment proves effective in a more serious clinical study.
For some reason the first image that came to mind when reading this was the "experimental" treatments in the last Resident Evil (where the old guy seems fine after receiving some shot and is able to operate the camera, only to go crazy a couple of minutes later and kill the two doctors).
I wouldn't have expected the cure for Alzheimer's to be something that is effective within minutes.
Etanercept works roughly by cleaning up that TNF-alpha which is plaqued around in Alzheimer's. It was FDA approved as an arthritis drug which (and I don't fully understand this part) allows doctors to attempt novel treatments using it without much further FDA approval.
Etanercept really does appear to cure the symptoms of Alzheimer's, quickly. The real issues are long-term effects for this sort of treatment and whether cleaning up the TNF-alpha actually does anything for fixing the causes of Alzheimer's.