Tablet taken twice a day halts Alzheimer’s

A drug has stopped brain deterioration in Alzheimer’s patients for the first time, scientists have announced.

Mental decline was halted for 18 months in some patients, in results hailed as the strongest sign yet that an effective treatment for the disease is near.

Researchers said the drug – taken as a tablet twice a day – could soon become the first medicine given to Alzheimer’s patients to keep the disease at bay for as long as possible.

The final-stage trial had at first appeared to be a failure as the drug did not work in patients who were taking other dementia medicines. However, among the 15 per cent of 891 patients not taking other medicines, the drug appeared to have remarkable effects.

These patients saw no drop-off in their reasoning and memory skills over 18 months, nor in their ability to carry out everyday tasks.

In addition, key areas of their brain shrank a third less than other patients in the trial, researchers told the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Toronto yesterday.

‘‘There is a pattern of disease modification here,’’ Serge Gau- thier, of McGill University, who presented the results, said. ‘‘This is the first time it has happened in our field that a drug reduces the rate of brain atrophy.’’

At present, patients are prescribed drugs such as donepezil, also known as Aricept, which help to control symptoms for a time but do not stop worsening damage to the brain.

Mental exercises have also shown promise in delaying mem- ory loss, but the main aim of dementia research is a drug to halt the disease by preventing damage to neural tissue.

Gauthier said it was a surprise that other dementia drugs appeared to cancel out the effects of the new drug, called LMTX or LMTM, but he added that just as cancer patients were given some medicines initially and then switched only if those stopped working, so Alzheimer’s patients could be given LMTX as a firstchoice drug.

‘‘In a field that has been plagued by consistent failures of novel drug candidates in late-stage clinical trials, and where there has been no practical therapeutic advance for over a decade, I am excited about the promise of LMTX,’’ he said.

The drug, based on a blue dye, aims at dissolving a protein called tau, preventing it from forming tangles that kill off nerve cells. Many other drugs have targeted another protein, beta-amyloid, which also forms clumps in the brain of Alzheimer’s patients.

Claude Wischik, of the Univer- sity of Aberdeen, who invented the drug and is developing it through a spin-off company, said he hoped to apply for a licence after he had published the results of a second trial later this year.

World leaders promised in 2013 to find a drug to stop dementia in its tracks within a decade. Wischik insisted LMTX was such a drug and would be available within a few years.

Doug Brown, director of research at the Alzheimer’s Society, a UK research charity, said: ‘‘After years of failure, we are now starting to see glimmers of hope. There are still lots of questions to answer before we know how prom- ising this new treatment could be.’’

Maria Carrillo, chief science officer at the Alzheimer’s Association, said the trial was ‘‘a significant event’’.

‘‘The most likely scenario for successful future treatment is addressing the disease from multiple angles. Having a drug that targets tau . . . is a very hopeful sign.’’

Other scientists urged caution. David Knopman of the Mayo Clinic, warned that looking only at a smaller group within a trial was ‘‘fraught with difficulties’’ because it increased the risk that impressive results could appear by chance.