ALZHEIMER’S REVOLUTION
Breakthrough drug could stop dementia from ever developing
A REVOLUTIONARY drug to stop dementia will be trialled in Britain.
Scientists say the breakthrough treatment has the potential to transform the fight against memory-robbing Alzheimer’s.
It works by tackling a rogue protein that clogs up the brain and destroys cells. In preliminary tests the protein all but vanished in a year.
Hospitals and clinics in London, Newcastle, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee are looking for patients to take part in full-scale trials.
The developers of aducanumab hope it could eventually be prescribed to healthy pensioners to halt dementia in much the same way that statins are used to prevent heart attacks.
Despite billions being spent on research, existing drugs offer only limited benefit.
Dr James Pickett of the Alzheimer’s Society said: ‘These results are the most detailed and promising that we’ve seen for a drug that aims to modify the underlying causes of the disease.’
The preliminary tests are ‘tantalising evidence’ of aducanumab’s potential, according to Dr David Reynolds of Alzheimer’s Research UK.
He added: ‘It has been over a decade since the last drug was licensed for use in people with Alzheimer’s and there are currently no treatments able to stop the disease in its tracks.’
While existing therapies ease dementia symptoms, aducanumab is the first to tackle the underlying damage in the brain. It contains an antibody
that homes in on amyloid, the protein that gums up the brain, poisoning and killing the cells. In preliminary trials, involving 165 Americans in the early stages of the disease, Aducanumab triggered the removal of amyloid from the brain.
And in men and women given a monthly infusion at a high dose, the amyloid was nearly gone after a year. This ‘unprecedented’ effect was deemed so significant that the results have been published in Nature, the world’s top science journal.
Stephen Salloway, who took part in the research at the Butler Hospital in Rhode Island, said: ‘This is the best news I’ve had in my 25 years of doing Alzheimer’s research.
‘It brings new hope to the patients and families most affected by this disease.’
Those who were not treated experienced steady declines in memory and day-to-day functioning, such as the ability to cook or take out the rubbish. But those given high doses of the drug stopped getting worse after just six months. The number of people tested was too small to be sure of the results and a larger trial, involving 2,700 people in the early stage of Alzheimer’s, is under way.
The trial is due to finish in 2020 and, if aducanumab is deemed safe and effective, it could be available shortly afterward.
However drugs that have seemed promising when given to small groups can fail spectacularly when tested on large numbers.
Aducanumab can also cause a worrying side-effect in which fluid accumulates in the brain, raising the risk of strokes.
Challenges ahead include finding a dose that is high enough to work but not so powerful that it does damage.
Other amyloid-busting antibodies have been tried before. But aducanumab, based on antibodies naturally made by pensioners seemingly immune to Alzheimer’s, is said to be the best yet. It is thought that it is more effective at getting into the brain and more likely to target damaging amyloid than any previous drugs.
Patients could be given brain scans in their 60s and 70s, with those thought to be at risk of dementia being offered the drug.
Alfred Sandrock, of Biogen, the US company developing aducanumab, said: ‘I could imagine a time when we would treat people before they have symptoms. ‘We do that now, for example we treat people with high cholesterol before they get heart disease because we would like to prevent heart disease.’
Experts cautioned that it was too early to be certain that aducanumab works.
Richard Morris, a professor of neuroscience at Edinburgh University, said: ‘We cannot yet say we have a cure for Alzheimer’s, as this is only a first step. However, despite being only 165 early-stage patients, these encouraging results will likely help the company enormously to scale up to a full double-blind clinical trial of aducanumab. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for success in the next steps.’
Professor David Allsop of the University of Lancaster said: ‘These findings could be a game- changer if the effects on memory decline could be confirmed.’
Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia affect some 850,000 Britons, with a case diagnosed every three minutes. Aducanumab was pioneered at the University of Zurich.