Alzheimer’s treatment shows promise
Treatment with antibodies naturally produced in the body appears to halt the memory-robbing progression of Alzheimer’s disease, according to promising early research that scientists plan to expand over the next year.
Current Alzheimer’s drugs provide moderate relief to some patients but do not stop the disease from advancing. By contrast, the antibodies – a treatment already in use for multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases – stopped or slightly reversed the disease in six of eight patients participating in an 18-month preliminary clinical trial.
Weill Medical College of Cornell scientists reported the findings Tuesday at the 10th International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders in Madrid. The findings are similar to those from an earlier German study of five patients over six months.
“Those people are not just stabilizing; many of them are getting better. That’s quite remarkable,” said William Thies, vice president for medical and scientific relations at the Chicago-based Alzheimer’s Association.
On the basis of these early results, a larger trial with 24 patients has already begun that will compare the antibody treatment to an inert placebo, and a multi-center trial with 210 patients is set to start next year.
Experts say the need for new drugs is critical because the disease affects an estimated 4.5 million Americans, and the number may accelerate as a result of new evidence linking type 2 diabetes with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease. The cost of the disease in the U.S. is estimated to be $100 billion annually. Diabetes, which is associated with obesity, has reached epidemic proportions in America, affecting an estimated 73 million people.
The patients in the new studies were treated with a product called intravenous immunoglobulin, or IVIg, a concoction of many antibodies collected from blood donated by healthy volunteers. The FDA approved immunoglobulin therapy more than 25 years ago for treating autoimmune diseases.
A single IVIg dose requires blood from several thousand donors and costs about $3,000. Baxter International Inc. produces IVIg and is funding the clinical trials.
Special immune system cells circulating in the blood make thousands of different antibodies against germs and other foreign invaders. They also make antibodies to get rid of rogue proteins, which occur as a result of cellular damage or aging.
One of these proteins, beta amyloid, is widely thought to cause the destruction of brain cells that leads to memory loss. Some people are better able to make antibodies against the various forms of beta amyloid, and population studies show those people have a lower rate of Alzheimer’s disease. People who have low levels of beta amyloid antibodies, meanwhile, are at higher risk for Alzheimer’s.
IVIg theoretically could be used off-label for patients with Alzheimer’s disease before the FDA approves it for that purpose, but Relkin and other researchers said such use would be unwise until the effectiveness of the compound can be scientifically verified.