Alzheimer's Drug Trials Offer Promising Results
Mar. 23 -- MONDAY, June 11 (HealthDay News) -- Decades of work in the laboratory may finally be paying off for Alzheimer's disease patients, as clinical trials show a variety of drugs making headway against the illness.
Two drugs, Dimebon and the diabetes medication Avandia, may help curb Alzheimer's in different ways. And close to five years of follow-up data suggest that an "Alzheimer's vaccine" might someday harness the power of the immune system to protect against dementia.
All of these agents work to alter the progression of the underlying disease, not just mask or limit its symptoms, as current Alzheimer's drugs do.
With so many varied means of attacking Alzheimer's disease on the horizon, "the clinician will have more of an arsenal to treat the patient from different approaches," said Dr. Paul Sanberg, director of the Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
"And what we don't even know yet is whether there are synergistic effects we could get by combining these approaches," he added.
Sanberg was not involved in the studies, the results of which were presented Monday at a special press briefing at the Alzheimer's Association's International Conference on Prevention of Dementia, in Washington, D.C.
Alzheimer's disease now affects more than 5 million Americans, according to the Alzheimer's Association. Scientists project that unless new ways are found to prevent or treat the disease, that total could climb to 16 million by mid-century. The exact causes of the illness are not known, but disease progression is highly associated with the build-up of clumped beta amyloid proteins in the brain.
One compound showing promise in a one-year trial is Dimebon, which targets Alzheimer's on a variety of fronts. According to Dr. William Thies, vice president of medical and scientific affairs at the Alzheimer's Association, the drug has symptom-limiting properties similar to anticholinesterase medications (such as Aricept) and another class of Alzheimer's drugs, called glutamate antagonists.
Related Stories
ABC News Live