It was officially described 115 years ago. But after billions of pounds and hundreds of failed trials, scientists have yet to crack one of the world’s most devastating diseases – Alzheimer’s.
Curing the cruel memory-robbing disorder is considered one of the Holy Grails of medicine, but scientists have been talking about it for decades. Currently, the only approved drugs for Alzheimer’s simply reduce some of the symptoms—and only temporarily—but do not stop the progression of the disease.
But there is some optimism among experts who believe they are finally getting closer. Dr Mark Dallas, a neuroscientist at the University of Reading, told MailOnline that he hoped a major breakthrough would occur in the next decade.
Giving dementia patients ADHD drugs such as Ritalin, commonly prescribed to hyperactive children, can improve memory and learning and reduce apathy, one of the sad symptoms of Alzheimer’s that often causes patients to become emotionally detached, scientists found on Tuesday. from your relatives.
The British researchers, who discovered the link after reviewing existing research, believe the drugs help jump-start the area of the brain responsible for cognition – and they are calling for new clinical trials.
Elsewhere, new therapies are being trialled that involve injecting people with stem cells that can mimic brain tissue to regenerate parts of the organ damaged by the disease.
There is also optimism about injections of antibodies that train the body to recognize early signs of Alzheimer’s. They are already being tested in humans and several antibody cocktails were quickly developed and approved for Covid during the pandemic.
Other teams are studying shutting down the brain with light or using oxygen therapy in an attempt to reverse the damage caused by the disease.
These potential treatments are still years away from being rolled out on a mass scale, even if they are found to work. But in the meantime, scientists are investigating whether some existing drugs could be repurposed to fight the memory-robbing disorder.
MailOnline looks at some of the potential discoveries that could one day lead to a cure or reversal of Alzheimer’s:
Vaccines and antibodies, brain-stopping helmets, oxygen therapy and stem cells are just some of the areas experts are exploring in the search for a cure for Alzheimer’s
A study by researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine revealed that global cases of dementia will triple by 2050 from 57.4 million to 152.8. But the rate of the disease is expected to increase in different parts of the world. In Western Europe, cases are expected to rise by only 75 percent, mainly due to an aging population, while they are expected to double in North America. But the biggest increase is expected to be seen in North Africa and the Middle East, where cases are expected to rise by 375 percent
‘Vaccines’
In November, scientists at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, US, began phase one trials of a nasal spray they hope will be a viable Alzheimer’s vaccine.
The spray uses the chemical Protollin to stimulate a person’s immune system.
It is thought to activate white blood cells that can clear the plaques of amyloid beta protein that build up around brain cells and cause them to die in Alzheimer’s patients.
The vaccine is administered as a two-dose schedule given one week apart. The early trial involved 16 participants between the ages of 60 and 85.
What is Alzheimer’s and how is it treated?
Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive, degenerative brain disease in which the accumulation of abnormal proteins causes nerve cell death.
This disrupts the transmitters that carry messages and causes the brain to shrink.
More than 5 million people suffer from the disease in the US, where it is the 6th leading cause of death, and over 1 million Britons have it.
WHAT’S HAPPENING?
As brain cells die, the functions they provide are lost.
This includes memory, orientation, and the ability to think and reason.
The development of the disease is slow and gradual.
On average, patients live five to seven years after diagnosis, but some can live ten to 15 years.
EARLY SYMPTOMS:
- Short-term memory loss
- Disorientation
- Changes in behavior
- Mood swings
- Difficulty handling money or making a phone call
LATE SYMPTOMS:
- Severe memory loss, forgetting close family members, familiar objects or places
- Become anxious and frustrated by an inability to understand the world, leading to aggressive behavior
- Eventually they lose the ability to walk
- There may be feeding problems
- Most will eventually need 24-hour care
HOW IS IT TREATED?
There is no known cure for Alzheimer’s disease.
However, there are some treatments that help relieve some of the symptoms.
One of them is acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, which help brain cells communicate with each other.
Another is menanthine, which works by blocking a chemical called glutamate that can build up in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease, suppressing mental function.
As the disease progresses, Alzheimer’s patients may begin to exhibit aggressive behavior and/or suffer from depression. Medicines may be given to help relieve these symptoms.
Other non-pharmaceutical treatments such as mental training to improve memory have been recommended to help combat one aspect of Alzheimer’s disease.
Source: Alzheimer’s Association and NHS
All participants showed early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, such as mild cognitive impairment and early signs of plaque build-up in the brain, but had not yet been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
The study will hope to find out whether or not the vaccine is safe and what dose doctors should use for it.
The treatment will have to go through two more rounds of trials to see if it actually works, which is usually where most drugs fail in the development cycle.
That means it could be years before it’s released as a common treatment.
The potential vaccine is the result of 20 years of research by Dr. Howard Weiner, co-director of the Ann Romney Center for Neurological Diseases at American Hospital.
“Starting the first human trial of a nasal vaccine for Alzheimer’s is a remarkable milestone,” he said at the time.
“If clinical trials in humans show that the vaccine is safe and effective, it could represent a non-toxic treatment for people with Alzheimer’s disease and could also be given early to help prevent Alzheimer’s disease in people at risk.” ”
Antibody therapies
A number of potential Alzheimer’s drugs aim to use specially designed antibodies, part of the body’s immune system, to help clear plaque from the brain.
Most of them failed when tested on humans, but that hasn’t stopped scientists from developing new ones in an attempt to stop or even reverse the spread of the disease.
One of the most promising is TAP01, which was developed by a team of researchers from the University of Leicester, the University Medical Center Göttingen in Germany and the British medical research charity LifeArc.
TAP01 works by targeting the amyloid beta protein while it is in a soluble form, rather than other Alzheimer’s antibody candidates that try to target the protein after it has become plaque in the brain.
Professor Thomas Bayer from Göttingen said: “We have identified an antibody in mice that will neutralize the truncated forms of soluble amyloid beta, but will not bind to either the normal forms of the protein or plaques.”
Researchers want to artificially create versions of this antibody and “humanize” it – so that the immune system does not reject it.
Additional tests on rodents with Alzheimer’s using these antibodies are showing promising results.
The rodents showed improvements in brain function and memory, as well as reduced levels of a protein in the brain.
The study’s authors hope that TAP01 could act either as a therapeutic treatment for Alzheimer’s patients or as a type of “vaccine” to prevent the disease from developing in the first place.
Leicester Professor Mark Carr, an expert in chemical biology, added: “Although the science is still in its early stages, if these results are replicated in human clinical trials, it could be transformative.”
“This opens up the possibility of not only treating Alzheimer’s once symptoms are detected, but also potentially vaccinating against the disease before symptoms appear.”
The researchers are now looking to find a commercial partner to take TAP01 through human clinical trials.
Another Alzheimer’s antibody treatment currently being tested in the US is gantenerumab.
It is thought to work in the more conventional way by clearing away amyloid plaque after it has already built up in the brain.
Antibody treatments, which have been used for years in things like cancer treatment or organ transplants, have gained wider attention as a potential treatment for Covid during the pandemic. One such product from AstraZeneca, called Evusheld, or the Covid antibody therapy AZD7442, could give people who cannot be protected by vaccines a chance to return to normal life
In the latest study, completed last June, 144 people with a genetic risk of Alzheimer’s were given gantenerumab or a placebo for up to seven years. But neither drug prevented or slowed cognitive decline in the participants.
The drug reduced the plaque in their brains, but the participants did not become less forgetful and there was no statistical improvement in their cognition.
Experts are now set to test whether the drug works in patients at an even earlier stage of the disease, with its developers still holding out hope.
Will we ever cure Alzheimer’s?
MailOnline asked UK Alzheimer’s experts whether science could find a cure for the disease and what is most likely to work.
Dr Mark Dallas, expert in cellular neuroscience, University of Reading:
Dr Dallas said while all the potential breakthroughs highlighted by this…
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