alzheimers news-keep your eye on this drug

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-KEEP YOUR EYE ON THIS DRUG

in the alzheimers world we are not looking for a cure yet
we are looking at ways to slow it down
on wednesday i wrote about all the healthy stuff to do to slow it down
maybe by 40%

my drug aduhelm (aducanumab) attaches to amyloid and removes it from the brain
it appears to slow cognitive decline by 22%
two similar newer drugs donanemab and lecanemab seem to lower the decline even more
by about 30%
they also attach to the amyloid and remove it from the brain
the studies were done on mci (mild cognitive impairment) due to alzheimers and early alzheimers patients
interestingly they didnt work in patients with moderate alzheimers disease 

in the theory of alzheimers
first amyloid accumulates in the brain forming plaques 
thus causing brain cell death
then
tau proteins inside the nerve cells unwind and form tangles
these tangles kill brain cells

where you see these tau tangles accumulating in the brain is where you will notice symptoms from that part of the brain being damaged
eg
alzheimers patients get an alteration of their ability to smell things early on 
sometimes 10+ years early
the tau protein accumulations can be seen in the olfactory center or what i call the smeller part of the brain on scans
its close to where short term memory is produced which has tau protein accumulation to show up there early in the disease
so 
you can track the tau proteins in the brain and watch the alzheimers spread in the brain

after amyloid plaques accumulate and the tau protein tangles accumulate you then get
inflammation
which sort of uses the bodies defenses to destroy more brain cells

so in the future its thought you will treat
amyloid accumulation
then
tau protein accumulation
then
inflammation 

to treat amyloid accumulation thats where drugs like aduhelm and donanemab and lecanemab come to play to lower the amyloid plaques in the brain
these drugs are here now
aduhelm is approved for use now
the others will be approved in the next few years

next
we need to treat the tau protein tangles
now
enter the tau protein drug semorinemab made by ac immune
its an antibody given iv that binds to tau protein in the brain and removes it

earlier it was used in a study in preclinical alzheimers patients and early alzheimers patients
it didnt really work 
then 
it was in this phase 2 linked here it was then given to moderate alzheimers patients
interestingly 
it seemed to help in those patients
it decreased cognitive decline by 40+%

also interesting is that aduhelm and those other two drugs dont have an effect on moderate alzheimers patients

are we on to something here

maybe we will use aduhelm early in the disease against amyloid

then
later add the semorinemab against the tau protein

then
use some type of inflammatory stopping drug to slow down the inflammation that does a lot of destruction in the brain
there are these inflammatory drugs in animal research now that show promise

so 
for me now in my mci stage ill just stay on aduhelm
then
ill keep a close eye on this semorinemab to be used maybe when it becomes available in a few years
then 
add the inflammatory med when it becomes available

maybe i can get into a study in the future using this combo treatment 

this is how many treating alzheimers specialists visualize how alzheimers treatment will be in the future

keep your eye on the semorinemab studies

there just might be some hope for the future yet

the organicgreen dooctor