Long-awaited Alzheimer's drug shows 'tantalising' evidence of effective treament
Video report by ITV News Correspondent Juliet Bremner
A long-awaited drug treatment which can halt Alzheimer's disease could be a reality, according to a leading charity.
Alzheimer's Research UK believes the antibody drug aducanumab, which clears away sticky protein fragments in the brain linked to the disease, provides "tantalising" evidence that a treatment is within sight.
Results from a promising early-stage clinical trial suggest that aducanumab could halt the progress of Alzheimer's.
Dr David Reynolds, chief scientific officer at Alzheimer's Research UK, said: "The findings suggest that aducanumab may slow memory and thinking decline in people with early Alzheimer's and although the analysis is only exploratory in this early trial, it paints a positive picture for ongoing trials with the drug."
The last UK-licensed Alzheimer's drug became available more than a decade ago.
Current treatments can reduce symptoms but nothing exists to stop or slow the progression of the disease.
Alzheimer's is linked to the build up of sticky clumps of beta-amyloid peptide (pieces of protein) in the brain.
Beta-amyloid toxicity is thought to be a primary cause of the neural dysfunction and degeneration which underlies the disease.
Scientists have long known that removing beta-amyloid could halt or slow the progression of Alzheimer's, but all attempts to target the peptide with a drug have failed.
However, the latest clinical trial showed that patients treated with aducanumab had lower levels of beta-amyloid.
Researchers reported in the medical journal Nature that higher doses were associated with a greater reduction of beta-amyloid and slower mental decline.
They said that some "concerning" side effects, such as headaches, would have to be addressed.
Dr Tara Spires-Jones, of the University of Edinburgh's Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems, warned against building up false hopes about the drug.
"I am cautiously optimistic about this treatment, but trying not to get too excited because many drugs make it through this early stage of testing then go on to fail in larger trials," she said.
Neuroscientist Professor John Hardy, of University College London, added: "These new data are tantalising, but they are not yet definitive."
An estimated 850,000 people in the UK have from some form of dementia, with most having Alzheimer's.
By 2025, more than a million people are expected to have the disease.