alzheimers news-donanemab for alzheimers

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-DONANEMAB FOR ALZHEIMERS 

in the theory of how alzheimers develops it is thought that amyloid beta gets deposited in the brain
these amyloid beta deposits from plaques which kill brain cells
not long after the tau proteins in the brain cells start to unwind and form tau tangles which destroys more brain cells
then the bodys inflammation system takes over causing even more damage

nih photo

the blue stuff is tau tangles
the brown stuff is amyloid plaques

so enter donanemab 
it is a monoclonal antibody that binds itself to the less common amino acids of amyloid beta
by binding to the antibody it forms a structure that the bodies inflammatory response team can just gobble up and remove from the body

in lillys phase 2 study of 272 patients thats what the donanemab did
after a period of time it removed the amyloid plaques from the brain 
then
these patient with mild to moderate alzheimers were tested for memory and for activities for daily living ie how well they could do stuff like drive read get dressed do their housework shop etc

these patient after a period of time had a 30% drop in their cognitive decline
they also had the measurable amyloid plaques removed from the brain

now the lilly company is planning more clinical trials to learn more
will this be one of the first treatments for alzheimers 

now this drug works similar to my drug biogens aducanumab
aducanumab binds to the more common amino acids on the amyloid beta protein
by doing this it also removes the amyloid plaques

in its phase 1 studies the aducanumab also removed the measurable amyloid on amyvid pet scans
later in a phase 3 studies they found that the treated patients also had a drop in the cognitive decline
they also found there was a drop in the tau tangles

the true measurement is functional
dose a person have an improvement in memory and an improvement in activities of daily living
or
a slow down in the decline

so 
this new lilly drug donanemab may work the same or slightly better than the aducanumab that i was getting infused each month 

it seems this approach using monoclonal antibodies might be part of the answer to a treatment to slow down this disease

if donanemab does show its working in phase 3 studies it could still be over 5 years or more before it is available 
while the aducanumab has already applied for fda approval
they are waiting for final approval soon
my guess is they will get temporary use but will require more long term studies 
the aducanumab is 5 years ahead of donanemab in its studies

so we have these two monoclonal antibody treatments in the works
but
will they work 

hopefully time will tell
there are others like these in the works also

we in the alzheimers world feel the excitement about the donanemab and aducanumab treatments

heres hoping they work

the organicgreen doctor