Dementia experts are cautiously optimistic a new drug could slow the progression of dementia by one-third.
New findings into a drug called solanezumab have been released at an Alzheimer’s disease conference in the United States.
Neurologist Dr Eric Siemers — who works with the drug’s manufacturer Eli Lilly — said the medication could help keep brain cells alive and the disease from progressing.
“Based on the currently available data, the rate of decline is slowed by 34 per cent,” Dr Siemers said.
“In other words, for individual patients… they don’t get better than they were when they started the drug but it slows the rate of decline.”
The drug had been tested in Alzheimer’s patients with limited success.
But researchers went back and analysed the results for 1,000 people with mild dementia.
Eli Lilly said patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease who took the experimental drug early in the course of their disease preserved more of their cognitive and functional ability.
“It’s a rough disease both for the patients and for the families and caregivers. I think if you talk to patients and families of people who in the mild stage, they typically will tell you this isn’t maybe great, but if you keep it at this stage I can deal with this,” Dr Siemers said.
“It’s just when you get to those later stages, where people don’t recognise their grandchildren and they have to be helped with their eating and dressing and some of those basic functions, that’s when the disease is really, really difficult.
“And so by slowing the rate of progression of the disease, we want to provide more time in those mild phases where people’s functioning is not normal, but it’s relatively good.”
Alzheimer’s Association Chief medical officer Dr William Thies said it was an important development.
“It’s important there were no safety signals, there were no additional side effects,” Dr Thies said.
“It’s important because it showed a continued effect of the drug, so the drugs aren’t transient, they aren’t temporary.
“And it showed that people were willing to tolerate the administration of this medication, which is given by injection, so that is always a question.”
American Alzheimer’s Association spokesman Dr Dean Hartley said experts were hopeful.
“The drugs that we currently have approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) are for symptoms and for that reason, they may improve the memory for a while but the disease still progresses,” Dr Hartley said.
“This is first sign that things are actually being slowed.”
More research needs to be done into the medication, with results of a larger trial due next year.
There is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease, but there are medicines available on prescription that can help delay the condition’s development.
Medicines which may be prescribed for Alzheimer’s disease include donepezil (brand name Aricept), rivastigmine (brand name Exelon), galantamine (various brand names) and memantine (various brand names).