Young people won’t have to worry about Alzheimer’s in the same way, as expert claims it will become a manageable condition – like HIV
Professor Bart De Strooper urged scientists to push the boundaries and come up with new, innovative therapies
ALZHEIMER’S could be a manageable condition by 2025, claims the head of the UK’s new Dementia Research Institute.
Professor Bart De Strooper said scientific progress meant younger Brits will not have to worry about the condition.
The top dementia doctor said in the near future the brain-wasting disease will be controlled with drugs, similar to HIV.
The Belgian professor was today announced as the next director of the £250 million institute.
And he told Brits to expect “real suprises”.
He said: “I would put a lot of money on saying that the next generation will have a completely different view of dementia disorders.
“In just the same way Aids in the 1970s and 80s was seen as a terrible doom or punishment of the gods, but is now manageable and treatable.
“I think we are already further on than many people believe.”
Prof De Strooper warned research into a dementia cure had so far been too conservative.
And he urged “crazy scientists” to push the boundaries and come up with new, innovative therapies.
Around 850,000 Brits have dementia – and there is currently no effective treatment.
Current medications can only help to slow down the symptoms.
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David Cameron pledged to find medicines to halt or cure the disease by 2025.
And Prof De Strooper said the target was achievable.
He said: “We won’t be celebrating in 2025 that dementia is cured, but I hope that by then there will be groups of patients who can be treated in much the same way HIV-Aids is treated today.
“I believe it will happen. I’m very optimistic - the brain is the most plastic organ we have.
“If you could stabilise the disease at an early stage it might be possible to regain part of the function that seems to be lost.”
Dementia is now Britain’s biggest killer and costs the economy more than cancer and heart disease.
Hilary Evans, Chief Executive of Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “The UK DRI will become a tour de force for UK dementia science.”
And Jeremy Hughes, head of the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “People affected by dementia were at the heart of the decision to put Prof De Strooper in post and are very optimistic about this world-leading Institute that will transform the treatment, care and prevention of dementia.”
Prof De Strooper said the Institute would not just be looking at Alzheimer’s.
It also would investigate the whole range of neurodegenerative diseases, including disorders such as Parkinson’s and Huntington’s.