Down’s syndrome is generally believed to be incurable, but recent research suggests that it may be possible to prevent the learning deficits associated with it. Researchers at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, in the US, gave adult mice with Down’s syndrome a peptide treatment. Afterwards they were able to navigate a water maze as easily as a control group and better than untreated mice. However, after the peptide treatment stopped, the mice reverted to the untreated level. "[One of the peptides] has already gone through all the toxicology studies and is in phase II clinical trials for Alzheimer's disease," says Dr Catherine Spong, the lead researcher. "The hope would be that potentially this would have application in other things as well." Her team’s results are preliminary and have yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal. ~ MedPage Today, Feb 4