There's Hope in the Drug Pipeline
No one is truly happy with the current crop of drugs approved in the United States for the treatment of Alzheimer's. Their names–Aricept, Cognex, Exelon, Razadyne, and Namenda–are familiar to anyone who cares for a dementia patient. "What all these drugs have in common is they act on the symptoms, not the underlying disease," says John Morris, director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Washington University in St. Louis. They boost chemicals that help the brain form memories, but "they don't help a lot." However, there are a few new classes of drugs attempting to tackle the disease head-on. "They could make a big difference," says Morris. All of them are in the very early stages of development:
Secretase modulators. Most scientists now agree that rotten lumps of protein called beta amyloid kill off cells in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. So the goal of this type of drug is to prevent the protein from forming by attacking the chemical that creates it, a class of enzyme called secretases. Secretase inhibitors have been shown to reduce amyloid in mouse brains and have proved safe in early human tests.
Immunotherapy. The idea here is to create antibodies that attach to beta amyloid and help destroy it. These antibodies can be given directly to the patient, like a drug. Again, animal studies have shown that the therapy works, and early human tests indicate it is safe.
Combo action. A compound called huperzine A seems to combine some memory-saving effects of drugs like Aricept and Namenda with an ability to protect neurons from beta amyloid. It's currently being tested for safety and effectiveness in people.
This story appears in the December 11, 2006 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
advertisement
