US scientists say they have successfully reversed the effects of Alzheimer's with experimental drugs.

This is really potentially good news. This is wonderful if true.

This matters to me a great deal.

Future hope

HDAC inhibitor treatment for humans with Alzheimer's disease is still a decade or more away, she said.

The chief executive of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, Rebecca Wood, said: "This is promising research which improves our understanding of memory loss in Alzheimer's.

"We need to do more research to investigate whether developing treatments that control this gene could benefit people with Alzheimer's.

"We desperately need to fund more research to head off a forecast doubling the UK population living with dementia."

Julie Williams, an expert in the genetics of Alzheimer's for the trust, said scientists were on the brink of finding a number of candidate genes that increase the risk of developing Alzheimer's.

"If we can find the triggers and causes then we can hopefully prevent them. That is the great ambition."