Monthly wonder jab can protect millions from cruel dementia disease
A DRUG to slow down Alzheimer’s relentless attack on the brain could be available in five years, experts said last night.
Tests show it delays the pace of decline by more than a third in those with a mild form of the disease.
And researchers believe the treatment could one day be used like statins – with a jab being given to people before they show symptoms of the devastating condition.
Dr Eric Karran, director of research at Alzheimer’s UK, said they were “full of hope” the drug, solanezumab, would be available before the end of the decade.
The drug could help “unlock” the secrets of the disease and one day be used to “considerably” block it.
He told a conference in London yesterday: “If solanezumab is shown to work in mild Alzheimer’s disease then the pathway would be to take that earlier and earlier, and we would be able to do it because we would have confidence that it would have an effect.
“People take statin therapy before they have a stroke. If you can affect it early, even only modestly, you have the potential to delay the disease quite considerably.”
The treatment works by targeting a toxic protein in the brain called beta amyloid, which can build up for a decade before any outward signs of dementia such as memory loss.
But Dr Karran said that studies currently being planned to test drugs such as solanezumab in people who have Alzheimer’s but who are not yet showing symptoms could further revolutionise treatment.
He said that, combined with a battery of early detection tests involving scans and memory, treatments could one day lead to “biomarker” tests to accurately spot those at risk before the disease strikes.
People aged 55 to 90 are being recruited to a study in the US, which will examine if the drug slows decline of people with mild Alzheimer’s.
This could ultimately lead to those with a strong family history being given a drug such as solanezumab.
And the development of tests which can detect Alzheimer’s in its earliest stages would allow the drug, given monthly, to be given at the first possible opportunity. This would hopefully save thousands from the most devastating effects of the disease.
Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia affect 800,000 Britons.
Speaking at a meeting of some of the UK’s leading dementia specialists ahead of an international summit next week in London, Dr Karran said: “Once we have unlocked this with one drug, that will really open the door and we will be able to screen other drugs far more quickly.”
Professor Peter Passmore, of Queen’s College Belfast, said that drugs which change the underlying disease would be the “Holy Grail” for tackling the condition.
Professor Nick Fox, from the Institute of Neurology, said that preventing disease before symptoms were present offered the best “window of opportunity”.
