This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
Promising results for Alzheimer’s drug
A study published in Nature has shown a drug which destroys protein plaques associated with Alzheimer’s has revealed early, but strong signs of effectiveness.
The drug, Aducanumab, is still in the early stages of development but results so far have shown it is safe and goes some way to halt memory decline. The research involved testing the drug on 165 patients, and showed the higher the dose of Aducanumab the better the effect of reducing amyloid plaques.
Nonetheless, 40 out of the 165 patients were forced to drop out of the study, half of which were due to side effects, including headaches.
Phase 3 of the research is now set to begin and will involve recruiting 2,700 patients with very early stage Alzheimer's across North America, Europe and Asia in order to fully test the drug's effect on cognitive decline.
As it has been over a decade since the last Alzheimer’s drug was licensed, with many disappointments along the way, experts are welcoming the research with caution.
Dr James Pickett, head of research at the Alzheimer's Society, added: "What is most compelling is that more amyloid was cleared when people took higher doses of the drug.
"No existing treatments for Alzheimer's directly interfere with the disease process and so a drug that actually slows the progress of the disease by clearing amyloid would be a significant step."
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