"Can a little fresh blood reverse the damage of Alzheimers disease Researchers trying to answer the question say they found the treatments are at least safe. And they got a tiny hint that they just may help. The team at Stanford University found that infusions of plasma from healthy young men didnt hurt the  Alzheimers patients who got them. And a few of the patients seemed to do a little better in the skills of everyday living although memory and thinking skills were not affected. This does not mean that blood transfusions could treat Alzheimers disease researchers cautioned. The study is a very long way from showing that. But it does show its worth going forward with more tests said Dr. Sharon Sha who ran the test program at Stanford. Although its very exciting it is very early days added Sha. We need to do the next steps to understand what is in the young plasma. Plasma is the liquid part of blood with the red cells and immune cells removed. The researchers were working off earlier studies from the lab of Tony WyssCoray at Stanford who found that infusing young human plasma https into old mice seemed to perk them up. The work made headlines and launched a company Alkahest thats working to develop young human plasma into treatments for agingrelated diseases. Alkahest plans to move forward with formal clinical trials in  volunteers next year said Joe McCracken vice president for development at the company. We do have a study with what we think is a commercially viable product that will start early next year McCracken said. Stanford was doing whats called a proof of concept trial just to check the safety of the treatment in  volunteers with moderate Alzheimers disease. At first they did whats called a blinded trial  treating half the patients with real plasma and giving half the patients a sham infusion with no one knowing which patient got the real treatment. Then they swapped the two sides. Later because it was taking so much time and effort they cut the trial to just nine people and all nine knew they were getting the real thing  a unit of plasma once a week for a month from healthy young men under the age of . There was no measurable effect on memory or thinking the team told the Clinical Trials on Alzheimers Disease conference in Boston. But Sha said on two measurements of function there was a difference in answers the caregivers gave on a questionnaire.  Anecdotally when I saw these patients and caregivers those that did say they had an improvementthey might have said things like they are more engaged they are participating on conversations more she said. I worry that people would take this information and say I need to get this. I need to get young blood. But that doesnt mean there really was an effect. You just cannot tell with a trial of only  people. I worry that people would take this information and say I need to get this. I need to get young blood. Its important to understand the science behind this first Sha said. More than  million Americans have Alzheimers and this number is expected to grow as the population ages. Theres no cure and treatments that have looked promising have flopped in big trials.  There are things you can do but right now there is no drug that is actually going to slow down the progression of the brain disease in Alzheimers said Keith Fargo director of scientific programs for the Alzheimers Association. But Fargo called the findings intriguing. They showed it was safe and tolerable treatment at least for this small number of people Fargo said. Sha says its not clear what might be found in plasma from young people that might help the symptoms of Alzheimers. There is a theory that there is an inflammatory process that is driving the disease and the plasma is helping that she said. Any actual treatment would not involve whole plasma McCracken said. He said the company has developed a safer plasma product that has blood clotting factors removed as well as immunoglobulin. Whole plasma must be matched to blood type. And McCracken says the company is working to figure out just what it is in the plasma that might affect aging and disease."