Surprising discovery with Alzheimer's medication.

brain disease that occurs in around 10% of the elderly and, as yet, there is no known cure. The most effective treatments are medications that attempt to increase the brain’s levels of acetylcholine, an important neurotransmitter whose levels decrease with onset of disease. These drugs work by interfering with acetylcholine esterase (AChE), an enzyme that breaks down acetylcholine (Fig. 1). Research by two scientists at the Weizmann Institute in Israel (http://www.weizmann.ac.il), has found that Rivastigmine (an AChE inhibitor) might be much more effective at raising acetylcholine levels than was previously thought [1]. Joel Sussman (Pickman Professor of Structural Biology) and Israel Silman (Bernstein-Mason Professor of Neurobiology) found that the drug has increased activity levels, lasting much longer than was suspected. X-ray crystals of the drug binding to AChE show a unique structure, which probably explains this lasting effect.