2023-05-03 19:54:43
An experimental Alzheimer’s drug reduced the decline in patients’ ability to think clearly and perform daily tasks by more than a third in a large clinical trial, Eli Lilly reported Wednesday. However, the results have not yet been published in a scientific journal.
Based on the results, in people with early symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease, Lilly said it plans to apply for US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval by the end of June.
The drug, donanemab, works by removing the buildup of plaque in the brain known as amyloid, which is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.
However, some side effects were reported: There were three deaths in the trial among people taking the drug, two of which were attributed to adverse events such as brain swelling or microbleeds.
The trial was carried out in more than 1.700 patients for 18 months.
“For every drug, for every disease, there are potential risks and benefits,” said Lilly’s chief scientific and medical officer, Daniel Skovronsky. But he pointed out that almost half of the participants taking the drug, 47%, did not show a decline in a key measure of cognition over the course of a year, compared with 29% of people taking a placebo.
For Tara Spiers-Jones, group leader of the UK Dementia Research Institute and president of the British Neuroscience Association, the Eli Lilly press release looks very promising. “Although the full data has not been shared with the scientific community, so we cannot yet judge its robustness, the company reports that its drug donanemab slows deterioration in people with early Alzheimer’s disease,” he told the Science Media Center. . The effects are very similar to those of other recent trials with drugs that act on the same target, and show remarkable consistency in the ability to slow cognitive decline in early Alzheimer’s disease by around 30-35% with drugs that reduce amyloid levels.
The researcher also highlights that it is important to point out that the treatment had rare serious side effects, including brain swelling and small strokes that appear to have contributed to the deaths of three of the trial participants. “Regulators will have to decide whether the benefits of treatment outweigh these risks.”
Volumen cerebral
Now, in addition to the two deaths associated with the treatment, the researchers are also concerned about another side effect: they accelerate the total loss of brain volume.
A recent article published in the journal “Neurology” warned that patients receiving lecanemab, another similar drug made by Eisai, and other similar drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease caused a shrinkage of the brain that could have potentially unknown consequences. dangerous.
While it’s true that Alzheimer’s disease itself causes the brain to shrink as the disease progresses, researchers found that both types of drugs generally caused clinical trial participants to lose more brain volume than This was observed in Alzheimer’s patients who received a placebo.
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