First ever drug to help treat Alzheimer’s has been discovered

New research has ended decades of failure and provided a historic breakthrough with finding a drug that can help treat Alzheimer’s disease.

Presented at the Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease conference, experts revealed lecanemab is the first drug to help slow Alzheimer’s, the most common cause of dementia in the UK, in the early stages.

Currently, people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s are given drugs to help manage the disease, but none have been able to change the course.

Lecanemab helps the brain attack amyloid – a sticky substance that builds up in the brain which contributes to the decline in patients’ memory and thinking.

To develop the drug, scientists provided 1,795 patients with lecanemab every fortnight via a drip for 18 months. However, researchers found the drug wasn’t able to cure patients, but it did manage to help slow down the disease’s progression.  

The trial results have been reported by Eisai, pharmaceutical company that is based in Tokyo that has partnered with US biotech firm Biogen to develop the drug.

Currently, over 850,000 people in the UK have some form of dementia, with more than half suffering from Alzheimer’s, according to the Alzheimer’s Society. Most commonly the disease affects people over the age of 65, but the NHS have said one in every 20 people under 65 suffer with the disease early-onset. 

Although the drug has only really found to be effective in early stages, meaning the majority of sufferers don’t realise they have it until it’s too late, people who feel it coming on from a younger age will benefit.

The NHS has said the first sign of the disease is usually minor memory problems, including forgetting about a recent conversation, event or the names and places of things.

Professor John Hardy, Group Leader at the UK Dementia Research Institute at University College London said, ‘This trial is an important first step, and I truly believe it represents the beginning of the end.

‘The amyloid theory has been around for 30 years so this has been a long time coming. It’s fantastic to receive this confirmation that we’ve been on the right track all along, as these results convincingly demonstrate, for the first time, the link between removing amyloid and slowing the progress of Alzheimer’s disease.’

The full results from the study have been published in The New England Journal of Medicine and the data is being examined by experts in America who will decide whether lecanemab is fit for wider use.

Photo by Robina Weermeijer