“We literally walked over here from the LZ. I haven’t even stopped in the Troop Medical Clinic to see her. She might be dead for all I know,” Camp said.
“Roger, then stay away from the TMC and do NOT, repeat, do NOT have contact with her again until mission completion.”
“Aye, aye Sanchez… but she traded information for the safe return of her son. What are we going to do with that?”
“Not a damn thing, Camp, but when you return from this mission you can tell her whatever you think she wants to hear. No other rescue than Major Banks has been authorized for the mission. Anything else? Good. First we cover mission planning, then we roll for rehearsals, mission and re-entry. Brick?”
“Gentlemen, I’m the CW2 on this detachment. Sanchez will take Team One, and I’ve got Team Two. I’ve created the mission plan for both and will run the rehearsals. Once I say we’re prepared to execute the mission, Sanchez will then brief the plan to Command. Once they approve, we stage and go,” Brick said as he searched the room for questions.
Brick was a tactical expert, a Chief Warrant Officer, grade two as commissioned by the President of the United States.
“Fine, let me introduce the team,” Brick continued. “Manson is our Master, he and Colt have weapons; Geek and Chip have intel; Ham and Dex take the comms; Dino and Jazz run demolitions; while Country and Bulldog handle engineering. Lynch and Veggie have medical. Camp, you’re going to shadow Veggie since you’re a Doc, and Finn you work with Geek on intel. We normally roll in two seven-man elements, but with you two added we’re going eight each with this mission,” Brick finished and took his seat.
“Just in case anyone decides to get loose lips on Skype or with Terps in the TMC… the mission plan will be spelled out once we hit stage at the rehearsal point. Questions? Good. See you at 0200,” Sanchez said as he walked over to the front of the private dining room, entered his combination and pulled the chain and padlock off the DFAC door.
University Hospital, Clinic and Research Center
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Lieutenant Colonel Raines walked quickly through the front doors of the University Hospital, Clinic and Research center and took the elevator to the fourth floor where a glass-enclosed sky-bridge walkway would take her over to the research center and labs.
The sign on the door read: Pieter J. Blauw, MD, PhD Lab.
Blauw was holding court with three of his post-doctoral research staffers and the veterinary technician who cared for his research animals.
Raines walked in and stood to the side as Blauw finished up.
“Colonel Raines, I trust you found the lab without great difficulty.”
“Yes, sir, exactly as your map and instructions indicated. Looks like you have quite the operation going on in here.”
“We do. I’ll give you the 50-cent tour as we walk over to my office.”
“Is this all Alzheimer’s research?”
“We have an Alzheimer’s focus but neurodegenerative diseases in general. I have three post-docs, a microbiologist and a few vet techs on my team. Nothing like I had back in the days at Brezden but really quite ample.”
Raines explored the stacks and stacks of Allentown XJ cage and rack systems.
“Transgenic mice?”
“Well, genetically modified at least. They have additional, artificially-introduced genetic material in every cell. We call that foreign DNA. It gives us a gain of function, for example the mouse may produce a new protein. But we’re also looking for a loss of function if that foreign DNA interrupts another gene.”
“Are you buying transgenics with Alzheimer’s knocked-in from the breeders, or do you create your own?”
“Actually both, Colonel Raines. In our research, we’re using genetically modified mice with inbred strains so that we have a stable genetic background, and then we add novel strains carrying alleles of genes that have been identified as potential targets for Alzheimer’s therapies. At the risk of being too technical, in our mice the transgene contains a tetracycline operator that drives four repeats of the protein ‘tau’ gene.”
“Yep, you just lost me.”
“Well, the microtubule-associated protein ‘tau’ is the most commonly misfolded protein in human neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, dementia, Pict’s and palsy. Our focus is on the mechanisms behind the pathogenesis, or neurodegenerative diseases similar to, when prions spread through the nervous system.”
“Okay, sorry I asked,” Raines said as she laughed and took a seat in Blauw’s research office at the far end of his lab.
“I understand. Try this on for size… almost 80,000 Americans die from Alzheimer’s each year, the fourth leading cause of death in the US after heart disease, cancer and stroke. That’s why I do this. Just like Mr. Campbell, four million are diagnosed each year at a cost to the nation of $100 billion. One of my heroes from Germany, Alois Alzheimer, was the neurologist who first described the pathology of the disease nearly 100 years ago, and we’re still working on it.”
“Are we any closer to solving this disease now, than we were back then?”
“Each day we add a new piece to the puzzle. We just don’t know how many puzzle pieces are in the full disease picture. The brain is one of the last frontiers in medicine. But thanks to these mice, we have increased the speed of discovery. In a six-month old mouse we can see AD disorders in the hippocampus and spatial learning deficit. In a 13-month old mouse we can see memory deficits. Breakthroughs are a function of time, money, good people and a lot of luck. Every day we hope we’re going to find something that makes it to a clinical trial.”
“And that’s why I’m here. Mrs. Campbell wanted me to help them select a human clinical trial for Mr. Campbell. What do you recommend?” Raines asked.
“I prepared a file for you,” Blauw said as he handed Raines a manila folder. “Three studies are currently recruiting patients. Given the fact that Mr. Campbell is 77 years old, he might be suitable for a trial out in Baltimore. Essentially, they are looking at the influence of age on amyloidal load in Alzheimer’s and in atypical focal cortical AD.”
“Are they using experimental meds?”
“No, not with this one, they’re injecting a radio-tracer to measure age-specific deterioration factors for both early-onset and late-onset as well as atypical cortical AD. They look for brain lesions through PET scans and try to measure cortical brain atrophy and the glucose metabolism that correlates to neuronal activity.”
“Doesn’t sound like this will help him get better.”
“Colonel Raines… he may see some marginal improvements with the medicines, diet and exercise… but he’s not going to get better. He’s an old-school fighter. So if he wants to contribute to the body of information on Alzheimer’s, this is a great start. This is a two month study. I’ll keep looking for others if he’s interested. You can also check out clincialtrials.gov and see if others come up.”
“I assume he would be qualified for this trial in Baltimore?”
“Yes, his clinical dementia rating is 1.5, his cued Grober and Buschke recall test was 10 of 48 and his total recall was 30 out of 48.”
“I take it that means yes.” Blauw smiled and checked his watch. “I know you’re a busy man. Thanks for taking so much time with me.”
Raines stood and shook Dr. Blauw’s hand and started to leave.
“Colonel Raines… he’s 77 years old… there’s not much time.”