Two drugs will be tested by 2015 for the prevention of Alzheimer’s. Clinical trials will assess the effectiveness of treatment before the first symptoms appear.
Test a drug against Alzheimer’s… even before the first symptoms. This is the bold bet of the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute, with the support of the Swiss laboratory Novartis. The institute is launching two clinical trials which will evaluate in 2015 the effectiveness of two treatments in preventing Alzheimer’s disease in high-risk patients.
Act against beta-amyloid
In these trials, which will last 5 years, more than 1,300 healthy patients aged 60 to 75 will receive either a placebo, an immunotherapy drug, or an oral treatment. All of these volunteers have one particular trait: they carry two copies of apolipoprotein E (APOE4), associated with a very high risk of developing Alzheimer’s, as is the case for 2% of the world’s population. The first treatment triggers an immune reaction against beta-amyloid, a protein that clumps together in plaques and causes cognitive decline. The second inhibits the mechanism behind the production of beta-amyloid.
“There is no guarantee that any of these treatments under study will prevent the clinical onset of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Dr. Eric Reiman, one of the study directors for the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute. “But we are grateful for the opportunity to find out. “Because in addition to determining whether or not the treatments in question could work, the trials could highlight the interest of an anti-amyloid treatment against Alzheimer’s.
Tests that often fail
An announcement that comes at the right time since doctors are beginning to be alarmed by the repeated failures of clinical trials. Not long ago, a study highlighted the alarming rate of failure in trials testing molecules against Alzheimer’s: 99.6%. Only one compound, memantine, has been marketed since 2003. The authors of this study urged further research to understand the mechanisms of the disease, while stressing the insufficient number of clinical trials. Other researchers have tried to explain this incredibly high failure rate: “The trials fail because by the time the patients receive the drugs, the brain is already too affected”, analyzed Pr Simon Lovestone, creator of a blood test to spot the disease one year before the first symptoms.
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