Editor’s Note: Dr. Richard J. Hodes is an eminent immunologist and director of the research program of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He is a featured expert in the new HBO documentary series "The Alzheimer’s Project," which began airing on HBO on Sunday, May 10. In 1995 Dr. Hodes was elected as a member of The Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives; in 1997 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and, in 1999 he was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Hodes is a graduate of Yale University. He received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. As author of more than 200 research papers, he is an influential scientist in and contributor to the field of immunology. For more about HBO’s "The Alzheimer’s Project," click here. 

LESLEY STAHL: Dr. Richard Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging, welcome to wowOwow. And thanks for joining us to discuss the four-part HBO documentary on Alzheimer’s, which is running right now. I watched this documentary, and one of the messages that is loud and clear in the series is that the hopelessness people have felt about this disease is turning into hope. And I wonder if you can tell us, in a nutshell, why you think there is cause for optimism since, as far as I know, there still is no cure.

DR. RICHARD HODES: It’s a great question – probably the question. I think the reason for hope, which you rightly perceived, came through in the comments of many of the lead investigators in the field, reflecting the progress that has been made over the past 10 and 20 years from the very little we knew to what we now understand, in terms of basic molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the disease; what we’ve been able to learn from animal models; the way we’ve been able to improve our ability to image events that happen in the brain, both of normal individuals and of those with Alzheimer’s disease. However, given all this optimism and excitement that’s been generated by progress, I think it is important to note, precisely as you have said, that we still do not have an effective means of treating, preventing or delaying progress of disease. And the most challenging question is how long it is going to take us to translate this excitement in research into such a success ultimately. And the answer to that, we truly do not know.

DR. HODES: The connection to vascular disease has come from a variety of lines of evidence, a lot of it having to do with risk factors – that is, epidemiologic studies – that show the relationship between multiple variables and the risk of having Alzheimer’s disease. And so for some time it’s been known that diabetes increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, and this relates both to the vascular disease, really, and the insulin story that you mentioned. It’s been known that a history of high blood pressure – hypertension – in midlife is associated with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. It’s been shown that some of the variables, such as levels of physical activity and fitness, which are closely related to cardiovascular risks, are also associated with the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. And in addition to this line of association to risk factors there are some interesting studies that included those that came from the Religious Order Study, in which a group of individuals had committed to being followed through life with close histories and examinations, and then to post-mortem examination of their brains.

LESLEY: Now when you say religious orders, we’re talking about priests and nuns —

DR. HODES: Yes. Correct.

LESLEY: — who live in these closed communities?

DR. HODES: Correct.

LESLEY: Yes, go ahead.