Alzheimer's Disease 2003 Potamkin Prize Shared By Two Researchers

Two America-based medical researchers whose work is central to progress in understanding Alzheimer's disease are co-winners of the 2003 Potamkin Prize for Research in Picks, Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders, awarded by the American Academy of Neurology (AAN).13/03/2003

Sharing the honors of this year's $100,000 Potamkin Prize are David M Holtzman, MD, professor of neurology at the Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, and Ashley I Bush, MD, PhD, professor of neurology, Harvard Medical School. The Potamkin Prize will be formally awarded at the 2003 AAN annual meeting.

"The research efforts of Dr. Holtzman and Dr. Bush have provided the important and essential basic foundation for understanding how to treat the pathology related to amyloid accumulation in the brain - one of the significant risk factors associated with Alzheimer's disease," said Roger N. Rosenberg, MD, member of the Potamkin Prize Committee and past President of the AAN. "Because of their work, medical scientists are closer than ever to both understanding the bio-chemical processes that cause Alzheimer's disease and to developing more effective strategies for diagnosing and treating Alzheimer's disease."

Holtzman has shown how an important genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease appears to facilitate the disease process. "Using this information, it may be possible to design future treatment as well as diagnostic strategies for Alzheimer's disease," said Holtzman.

Bush's work focused on the ways that the chemical composition of the brain changes in people with Alzheimer's disease. "These changes produce an effect similar to an oxidizing agent that 'bleaches' the brain, which is what we think kills brain cells in Alzheimer's disease," he said. Further clinical testing, led by Bush, has revealed a promising therapeutic approach to counteract the effects of oxidation in the brain.

MEDICA.de, Source: American Academy of Neurology (AAN)

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