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Alzheimer's Drug May Have Additional Health Benefits
NewsMax.com Wires
Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2006

WASHINGTON -- A medicine used to treat patients with Alzheimer's Disease may point the way to better care in cases of poisoning by nerve agents and pesticides.
Galantamine, a medication approved for treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer's, protected guinea pigs from the effects of compounds used in pesticides and some poisons that attack the nervous system, researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine report in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers found that animals treated with galantamine and later exposed to lethal doses of soman or sarin survived and showed none of the common symptoms of exposure, such as convulsions, respiratory distress and loss of coordinated movement.
In addition, animals treated with galantamine and atropine within five minutes after an exposure also survived with no side effects, they reported.
"Nerve agents, such as soman and sarin, are among the most lethal chemical weapons ever developed. They have been used with catastrophic results in wars and terrorist attacks, such as the subway attacks with sarin in Japan in the late 1990s," said lead researcher Dr. Edson X. Albuquerque.
The researchers said the study demonstrates the potential of galantamine for use in developing treatments for humans who contact such nerve agents and pesticides.
The study was funded by the United States Army and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.