Sen. Mann wants Oklahoma to be the national leader in Alzheimer’s research and treatment

OKLAHOMA CITY – Right now, more than seven million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease, including about 10 percent of Oklahomans over the age of 65. It’s one of the most common forms of dementia, leading to memory loss and the inability of patients to care for themselves, and ultimately is fatal. While there’s no cure, there is a new test that can diagnosis Alzheimer’s sooner, drugs that can treat the symptoms, and some that slow its progression. Those medications and the critical research currently underway here in Oklahoma were highlighted in an interim study presented by Sen. Mark Mann on Thursday to the Senate’s Business and Insurance Committee.

“Alzheimer’s is a devastating illness,” said Mann, D-Oklahoma City. “I don’t know anybody that it’s not affected, either with a family member or a friend, but there have been tremendous advances in the past two years, with important research happening right here in our state. The goal is to find strategies to help make Oklahoma the gold standard in the nation for the detection and treatment of Alzheimer’s.”

Oklahoma Alzheimer’s advocates Lance and Ashley Sloan, of Tulsa, appeared before the committee. A speech therapist, Ashley began struggling to complete her reports. At just 49 years old, she was beginning to have symptoms of cognitive impairment.

“It was scary, it was agonizing. We really didn’t know where to turn,” Lance said. After 16 months of waiting for appointments and undergoing numerous tests, they learned Ashley had Alzheimer’s. He applauded a blood test approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) this year that can provide that diagnosis much sooner, which in Ashley’s case, could have avoided frustration and anxiety and helped them start  therapies and medicine to slow progression and help address symptoms earlier.

Sarah Ocañas is a Ph.D. with the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC) and a researcher with the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF). She told the committee Alzheimer’s is more prevalent among women, impacting one in six females compared to one in 11 males. “Females have a higher lifetime risk and have worse cognitive decline, worse pathology in their brain, but when males do get Alzheimer’s disease, they tend to die more quickly.” Her research is looking at the gender difference and how the brain’s immune system can be targeted to treat the disease.

“We’re really on the forefront of Alzheimer’s research. We have several investigators, seven to 10, focused on Alzheimer’s disease, and really looking at it from different perspectives,” Ocañas said. “We’re in an era that there’s a lot of hope that there could be effective treatment in the future and some of that research is happening in Oklahoma.” Ocañas said the goal is establishing a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Alzheimer’s center in Oklahoma.

“This will not be the last time you’ll hear me talking about Alzheimer’s,” Mann said. “It’s a devastating diagnosis not only for that individual, but also for the friends and families who are providing care. The work being done right here can make a huge difference for countless Oklahomans.”

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For more information, contact:  Sen. Mark Mann at 405-590-4471 or Mark.Mann@oksenate.gov