Luke O’Neill on Alzheimer’s

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The Pat Kenny Show 8 min 2 speakers 6 chapters transcribed 2 months ago

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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

Dr Luke O'Neill 0:01

The Pat Kenny Show. With timber living log cabins. Saturday and Sunday from 10am on Newstalk.

Pat Kenny 0:09

Conversation that counts. Well now in studio with me is Luke O'Neill, Professor of Biochemistry at Trinity College in Dublin. Luke, good morning. Good morning Pat. So the WHO has been talking about Alzheimer's.

Dr Luke O'Neill 0:19

It has. It's big news in a way, pal, because it's issued guidelines. WHO are very good at issuing guidelines, you know. And they've come out now and stated what are the best ways to decrease your risk of getting Alzheimer's. Now, it's a big thing, as you know. There's 57 million cases in the world. 67,000 in Ireland have Alzheimer's. So can you do anything with your lifestyle and your diet and all these sorts of things?

What new WHO guidance on Alzheimer’s risk reduction is being discussed?

Dr Luke O'Neill 0:39

And there's been an awful lot of uncertain science behind this. But now the WHO says these are credible. These are credible ways that you might do to decrease your risk.

Pat Kenny 0:47

Now, there is no cure at the moment. There are treatments that might delay the progression of Alzheimer's disease, but there's no cure.

Dr Luke O'Neill 0:53

There's no cure. Yeah, but the big breakthrough two or three years ago now was they developed antibodies to this thing called beta amyloid, which builds up in your brain during Alzheimer's. That's like the noxious thing that's causing it. And the antibodies clear them, you know. Small effect, maybe 20% effect. There were some side effects with brain bleeds, but still... it was the first thing ever that could slow down the disease progression. And there's three of them now actually available. A third one was announced this week as well, by the way. I think it's tau. It was another noxious protein. So there's a tiny bit of progress with therapy. But the European Medicines Agency haven't approved it because it's too expensive and the effects are too small at the moment.

Dr Luke O'Neill 1:29

But still there's a bit of progress. Now, they have been talking about the shingles shot. Now, this is the big one. And I'm going to plead to the Irish government to make the shingles vaccine for free to the over-60s yet again. Now, I paid for mine.

Pat Kenny 1:40

Well, I paid for mine as well. We don't have skin in this game because we've already done it and paid for it.

Dr Luke O'Neill 1:46

But it's not cheap. I think it was €400 or €500 for me. Yeah, it's two shots and it's... The UK made it free, Pat, and tripled uptakes. You make it free, more people are going to get it. In Northern Ireland, it's free. Yeah, exactly. Now, this week, Pat, get this, a 51% decreased risk of Alzheimer's if you take the shingles vaccine. Now, this is the fourth big study. It was 300,000 people, which makes it robust. There's a tiny criticism of what they didn't vaccinate them and then look for Alzheimer's. It was just an observational study. That's one slight caveat.

What recent drug breakthroughs target beta‑amyloid and tau in Alzheimer’s?

Dr Luke O'Neill 2:13

There's a risk that people take vaccines are healthy anyway, you see, so you never know. But they factored that in. And these people are concluding it's the vaccine itself that's protecting against developing Alzheimer's. So that's more evidence.

Pat Kenny 2:24

Now, do they understand the mechanism by which the vaccine might be affording this protection?

Dr Luke O'Neill 2:28

Very importantly, they do. And that gives even more evidence to this. So it turns out that, as you know, shingles is caused by a virus. It causes chicken pox in children. It goes into your nerves. And there's a clue there, isn't there? Weights in your nerves. And then in your 50s, it re-emerges and causes shingles. It's the same disease, but now in your 50s.

Pat Kenny 2:45

So if you haven't had chicken pox, you can't have shingles.

Dr Luke O'Neill 2:48

You can't have shingles, precisely. Exactly, yeah. Now, what's happening here, they think, is guess what? It might cause brain inflammation as well and begins to trigger shingles. effects in the brain and might bring on Alzheimer's. So you get a vaccine and it does re-erupt, it won't damage your brain is the idea. The second thing is there's a component in the vaccine, it's got an adjuvant that seems to help clear the plaque. Isn't that amazing? So there's something going on with this vaccine that really points towards it being protective.

Pat Kenny 3:11

Now when you look at the costs, I mean 67,000 people you say in Ireland have dementia at the moment and many of them will end up in nursing homes paid for by the state with the help of Fair Deal and so on and so forth.