Speaker: Dr. Vassilios Papadopoulos
Director of the Research Institute of the MUHC, Associate Executive Director for Research at the MUHC and Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University.
Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most devastating neurodegenerative pathologies, for both patients and families. The research for new therapies is moving forward at a faster pace than that for the basic mechanisms of Alzheimer disease, and it follows 2 parallel paths. One aims at stopping the progression of the disease, and the other at preventing or even reversing its evolution. We now have some experimental drugs that can, more or less efficiently, stop some aspects of the disease. But because Alzheimer’s disease affects so many parts of human brain and function, Dr Papadopoulos and his research team are working to provide the patients with drugs that would have a synergetic effect: to hit the disease on many fronts at the same time. 
Moreover, a number of new molecules that can activate neuronal stem cells, thus regenerating the part of the brain that has been destroyed by the disease, are now under development. These could represent a revolution in the life of patients, once all the necessary clinical trials are completed.>