Another once-promising Alzheimer’s treatment goes down the tubes

It ’s bad enough tidings that Eli Lilly & Co. pulled the plug on an observational Alzheimer ’s Disease drug , semagacestat , after dreadful clinical trials . But Lilly ’s failure have it more likely Alzheimer ’s treatment inquiry has been going down a unsighted alley .

It ’s been over a hundred yr since Alois Alzheimer first discovered superfluous proteins in the wit of hoi polloi with senile dementedness , in post-mortem . We now know there are two types of proteins that show up — there are plaques , made out of a protein called genus Beta - amyloid , which clog up the brains of Alzheimer ’s sufferers , and then there are “ tangle ” of a protein cry tau , which are found in the neurons of Alzheimer ’s brain . For years now , drug companies have been pour all of their resources into creating drug that reduce the genus Beta - amyloid brass . Some research worker argue that tau tangles were more important , and a new generation of drugs will target Tau more than beta - amyloid .

The dear news is that drug that reduce genus Beta - amyloid plaque do seem to reduce Tau tangles as well , as researchersannounced jubilantly at last month ’s Alzheimer ’s league .

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The big news is that Lilly ’s die drug , which targets beta - amyloid plaques , did n’t improve patient ’ cognition at all , and it in reality reduced the patient ’ ability to execute daily action . And the early indications are that other drug in the pipeline that focus on genus Beta - amyloid plaques may not be any more successful . One of the leading rival , Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson ’s bapineuzumab , showed a clear reduction in beta - amyloid plaques ( and tau tangles ) , but failed to demonstrate any open betterment in mental functioning , according to a March 1 study .

Dr. Gary Kennedy , director of geriatric psychiatry at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City , put it most compactly at the July Alzheimer ’s league , when he say both beta - amyloid and tau “ may be manifestation of the disease and not its line of descent . ”

Dr. Allen Roses , director of the Deane Drug Discovery Institute at Duke University Medical Center , tells Bloomberg :

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Alzheimer ’s research has overemphasized the amyloid hypothesis for a very foresighted time . When the leading candidate for Alzheimer ’s disease appear to go for one reason or another , to me it ’s just evidence that the hypothesis is not right .

Bloomberg also did talk to some other people who endure by the “ amyloid hypothesis , ” and a few drug companies keep to campaign forward with drugs that direct genus Beta - amyloid , admit bapineuzumab .

regrettably , because of the long lead time involved in drug development , even as it starts looking more likely that focalise on these protein may have been a mistake , it could still take several years before we start seeing new data-based drug that are ground on a different approach . The safe news : researchers remember they ’ve isolated just four gene that are unite to half the cases of Alzheimer ’s , and drugs that target those genes might show more promise . [ Bloomberg ]

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