Dr Kerryn Phelps, Health Editor, with Tracey Grimshaw, Channel Nine, 'Today'

PHELPS: Good morning, Tracey.

GRIMSHAW: What is this drug, and what does it do?

PHELPS: It's called clioquinol and it's in the past been used as an antibiotic for travellers' diarrhoea, but it was removed from the market many years ago, because it caused a vitamin deficiency. But now they are re-looking at this drug and looking at a new function for it, and that new function is to help to treat Alzheimer's disease, and researchers for the first time are starting to mention the word 'cure'.

GRIMSHAW: And, that is because this drug, seemingly, in clinical trials, attacks the protein that causes the damage that causes Alzheimer's, is that right?

PHELPS: That's exactly right. With Alzheimer's it's believed now that the actual cause is an abnormal deposition of protein called beta-amyloid, and that beta-amyloid mixes with heavy metals, particularly copper and zinc, and forms almost like a plaque of rust in the brain, that causes damage to the brain tissue. Now, what they have done is they've got these genetically engineered mice, and the mice they're able to induce the changes of Alzheimer's, and then they have given the mice this particular drug and it has dissolved the plaque, and restored function in some of the mice, and certainly slowed the progress of the damage. They've now got some trials in humans, and they are accessing them at the moment, and it's apparently looking quite promising.

GRIMSHAW: Are the trials being done in Australia or overseas? And how far advanced are they?

PHELPS: Trials have been done in Australia, in Melbourne, the Mental Health Research Institute, in conjunction with Harvard University, and they've had about 38 people, half of whom got the drug and half whom got a placebo, and it appears that the people who were on the medication, on the active drug, did better than the people who weren't. Now, we do have other medications available for Alzheimer's, but they work for a period of time, and then they seem to stop working, and they don't actually address the cause of the Alzheimer's. The difference with this one is that it appears that to be targeting the cause of the problem.

GRIMSHAW: Is the trial a long term…has the trial been a long term one? Because, the trouble with Alzheimer's of course is that it is a degenerative condition over a long period of time, and I guess if you want to look at a cure, you need to know that the cure is not going to leap frog, you know?

PHELPS: Well, at the moment, it's been going for about eighteen months I understand, and the people who were on the active drug are continuing on that, so they continue to be monitored. Now, when might this become a treatment that's generally available?

GRIMSHAW: Mm.

PHELPS: They're talking about time frames, if everything goes well, in about five years. So, it certainly is, I think, the first real ray of hope that we have heard of for Alzheimer's disease which targets the actual cause of the problem, and it may well be the first in a line of thinking differently about the treatment for Alzheimer's, we can certainly hope.

GRIMSHAW: And while we are in these early days, when would you have to start taking it for it to be effective, in other words once the damage has set in, is it too late?

PHELPS: Well, at this stage it's hard to say…

GRIMSHAW: Yes.

PHELPS: But, certainly you'd need to establish that the symptoms are under-way, and that the disease is progressing, and that the cause is Alzheimer's. Because, of course, there are other causes of dementia, vascular dementia or a number of multiple strokes being one of those, obviously that wouldn't respond to this medication, so you'd have to establish that this was Alzheimer's you were talking about. There would need to be, I guess, a moderate problem developing, and then with experience with this drug eventually if it works out, and there are a lot of 'if's' and 'what ifs'. If it works out that way, then people who are identified will be put on to a treatment program.

GRIMSHAW: Okay. We'll leave it there. Thanks, Kerryn.

PHELPS: Thanks, Tracey

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