Plea for Britons to test jab that could beat Alzheimer’s
Cups of coffee slow memory loss in old age
A DRUG to stop Alzheimer’s disease in its tracks is set to go on trial in Britain – and an appeal is under way for volunteers to take it.
The drug raises the “tantalising” prospect of removing the toxic protein associated with Alzheimer’s from the brain.
Scientists have been so impressed with early results of the antibody therapy “aducanumab” that they are keen to move their trials on.
They have found that monthly injections slow or stop altogether the build-up of amyloid plaques that make the disease progress.
Yesterday Eric Reiman, of the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute in Arizona, US, said: “Confirmation that an anti-amyloid beta treatment slows down cognitive decline would be a game-changer for how we understand, treat and prevent Alzheimer’s disease.”
There is no cure for Alzheimer’s, which causes nerve cell death throughout the brain leading to mental decline.
In Britain, caring for our 850,000 dementia sufferers costs £26billion a year. The results of the trials were published in Nature yesterday. Last night Dr David Reynolds, chief scientific officer at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “These results provide tantalising evidence that a new class of drug may be on the horizon.
“Aducanumab is able to clear a key Alzheimer’s protein in people, building on earlier studies in mice.
“The findings suggest that aducanumab may slow memory and thinking decline.
“The ultimate proof of success will be whether aducanumab is safe and effective in large Phase 3 trials, which are recruiting participants across the UK. Some of the sideeffects are concerning and will need addressing in the current trials, to ensure that people can stay safely on the drug for long periods.
“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.”
After the trials on mice, scientists gave aducanumab, produced by US firm Biogen, to 165 patients with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia due to Alzheimer’s and with brain amyloid beta deposits.
After 54 weeks, amyloid beta was significantly reduced and higher doses were associated with greater reduction.
There was little change in patients who received a placebo.
More advanced Phase 3 trials will take a few years.
Richard Morris, Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh, said yesterday: “We cannot yet say we have a cure for Alzheimer’s as this is only a first step.
Compelling
“However, despite involving 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.”
Dr James Pickett, head of research at Alzheimer’s Society, said: “The study showed that the drug, aducanumab, was first able to remove clumps of amyloid from the brain of mice and also, excitingly, in people.
“What is most compelling is that more amyloid was cleared when people took higher doses.
“No existing treatments 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.”
Anyone interested in volunteering for dementia research, including the Phase 3 trial of aducanumab, can sign up online at joindementiaresearch.nihr.ac.uk or by calling Alzheimer’s Research UK on 0300 111 5 111. COFFEE could halt memory loss among older people, research shows for the first time.
Studies of rats found caffeine blocked the action of a brain receptor linked to memory loss.
Dr Luisa Lopes, of the Institute of Molecular Medicine in Lisbon, Portugal, said: “Four years ago we identified the role of this receptor in stress but we did not know whether its activation would trigger all the changes.
“We now found that altering the amount of this receptor is sufficient to induce ‘early-ageing’ combining the memory loss and an increase in stress hormones.”
David Blum, of the French Institute of Health and Medical Research, said: “In elderly people, we know an increase of stress hormones has an impact on memory. Our work supports the view that the effects of caffeine in Alzheimer’s and age-related cognitive impairments relies on counteracting the loss of stress-controlling mechanisms.”
The findings are published in the journal Scientific Reports.