Created the first drug that slows down the destruction of the brain in Alzheimer's disease

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Research breakthrough ends decades of failure and shows new era of Alzheimer's drugs — the most common form of dementia — possible.

However, the drug, Lecanemab, has only a small effect and its efficacy and use in therapy are still under discussion. Also, the drug only works in the early stages of the disease, before the brain has suffered permanent damage.

Lecanemab acts on amyloid beta, which accumulates in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease and sticks to the spaces between neurons, forming characteristic plaques that are one of the hallmarks of the disease. The drug causes the immune system to clear amyloid from the brain.

Other drugs are currently being prescribed to people with Alzheimer's disease to help manage their symptoms, but none of them change the course of the disease.

1,795 volunteers with early-stage Alzheimer's disease participated in a large-scale trial.

Results presented at the conference “Clinical trials of Alzheimer's disease” in San Francisco and published in the New England Journal of Medicine are not a miracle cure. The disease continued to rob people of their mental abilities, but this decline slowed by about a quarter during 18 months of treatment. This slowdown could mean an additional 19 months of unneeded life. care for patients.

The data is already being evaluated by US regulators, who will soon decide whether lekanemab can be approved for wider use. Developers — pharmaceutical companies Eisai and Biogen — plan to start the approval process in other countries next year.

There are more than 55 million people with Alzheimer's disease in the world, and it is predicted to exceed 139 million by 2050.

Dr Susan Koolhaas of the Alzheimer's Research Center in the UK said it was “a modest effect” hellip; but it gives us some foothold” and the next generation of drugs will be better.

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