A new Alzheimer’s drug which is being developed partly in Aberdeen has shown “promising results” in recent studies – offering hope to millions of patients around the world.
Professor Claude Wischik first discovered that the building blocks of Alzheimer’s disease, named tau proteins – which can tangle within brain cells and spread like a virus – could be dissolved in the test tube with the right chemicals in the 1980s.
And for the last several years, he has been working on harnessing this reaction to provide an effective treatment for the deteriorative condition with teams at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
Recent clinical studies of his treatment, named LMTC, have shown positive signs of the drug’s effectiveness in slowing down and reducing the effects of the disease.
However, Prof Wischik’s team now need to carry out further tests before the drugs can be rolled out.
The results of the studies were presented at a recent Alzheimer’s Research UK conference, and last year in Canada and the US.
Prof Wischik said one of the key outcomes of the recent studies is the drug seems to be more effective when used as the
sole treatment.
He said: “Our first study was a comparison of two high doses of 150mg and 250mg a day of the drug, to a low dose of 8mg a day as control.
“That study showed there was no difference in the main outcomes at the different dosage levels across the study population as a whole, but it suggested that the drug might be effective as the sole therapy.
“In other words, it didn’t seem to work for patients who were taking the drug in combination with the standard treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.
“However, it looks as though the patients who were taking it as their only treatment did remarkably well – and the same was true even at the very low dose of only 8mg a day – which we assumed would not have been very effective – and that’s really good, because it’s a safer option, and is tolerated very well by patients.
“For these clinical outcomes, these patients had no decline, or only minimal decline, over the 15 months of the trial, whereas those who were taking the drug in combination with standard treatments declined as expected with Alzheimer’s disease.
“Those were promising results.”
Prof Wischik said it is hoped a new study can commence before the end of the year, and if the results are positive, it could be another significant step forward in the long-running battle against the devastating condition.
