Clinical Trial Results Show Promise for Alzheimer’s Disease Treatment
Researchers from pharmaceutical companies Biogen and Eisai announced promising results from a clinical trial for Alzheimer’s disease. They report a monoclonal antibody treatment, called lecanemab, “reduced cognitive decline by 27% in people with early-stage Alzheimer’s compared with those on a placebo after a year and a half.”
While there a still a lot of questions as earlier studies with similar drugs have cleared amyloid plaques in the brain, which are clumps of protein that disrupt neurons and other cells, but they have not helped Alzheimer’s patient’s symptoms. According to researchers, lecanemab is the first to do so; however, the study only included 1795 people in early-stage Alzheimer’s.
Scientists say one reason why lecanemab is showing positive results while other similar drugs have not, is because it works a bit differently. Jonathan Jackson, a cognitive neuroscientist at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) explains the drug aducanumab primarily binds to amyloid protein after it has clumped together. Lecanemab starts working in an earlier stage, targeting “protofibrils.” These are strands that will most likely consolidate into plaque but haven’t done so yet.
Although there are still a lot of questions regarding the efficacy of lecanemab, doctors hope future studies will provide a clearer picture. Meanwhile, people and their families who participated in the study expressed gratitude at having the opportunity to be a part of a study “where the drug actually worked, against a backdrop of repeated failures to develop effective Alzheimer’s medications.”
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Sources:
science.org/content/article/five-big-questions-about-new-alzheimer-s-treatment
statnews.com/2022/10/20/front-of-alzheimers-patients-in-successful-drug-trial/