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An investigational drug for the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease does not significantly affect cognitive decline, new research suggests.
However, the treatment reduced the disease markers and slowed down neurodegeneration in the brain.
These findings led the researchers to offer the drug, known as gantenerumab, to participants in an exploratory trial.
Scientists continue to monitor changes in Alzheimer’s disease measurements in participants who receive the drug.
The drug’s ability to shift multiple Alzheimer’s biomarkers back to normal indicates that it positively affects the disease process
The DIAN-TU study evaluated the effects of two investigational drugs – gantenerumab, manufactured by rock and its US subsidiary, Genentech, and solanezumab, manufactured by Eli Lilly and Co – in people with a rare, inherited, early-onset form of Alzheimer’s disease.
It is known as Alzheimer’s disease with dominant inheritance (DIAD) or Alzheimer’s disease with autosomal dominant transmission.
People patients with this form of the disease are born with a mutation that causes Alzheimer’s disease and suffer from reduced memory and thinking skills from their thirties and forties.
It is estimated that DIAD represents less than 1% of cases.
Principal Investigator Randall Bateman, Director of DIAN-TU and Charles F and Joanne Knight Distinguished Professor of Neurology at the University of Washington, said: “Gantenerumab has had a major impact on Alzheimer’s biomarkers.
“The drug’s ability to shift several Alzheimer’s biomarkers back to normal indicates that it positively affects the disease process.
“The effect was strong enough that we launched an open-label extension of the trial so that participants had the option of continuing to take the drug while we continue to study it.”
In the study, 144 people with DIAD received either gantenerumab, solanezumab, or a placebo control for up to seven years.
Neither drug has prevented or slowed cognitive decline in people who are almost certain to develop Alzheimer’s disease from genetic mutations.
The researchers were unable to determine the effects on thinking and memory in participants who entered the study without symptoms because they experienced little or no decline in cognitive function.
The study also evaluated the effect of the drugs on the molecular and cellular signs of Alzheimer’s disease.
According to research published in Nature Medicine, gantenerumab has shown potential benefit on these measures.
“Although the trial focuses on people with rare mutations, drugs that are successful in this population would be promising candidates for preventing or treating the forms of Alzheimer’s that occur more frequently in older people,” said Dr. Bateman.
“The destructive molecular and cellular processes in the brain are similar in the two types of disease. “
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