Alzheimer drug slows cognitive decline

A NEW DRUG has slowed cognitive decline by up to 81 per cent in Alzheimer patients during early pharmaceutical trials, it has been announced.

The drug, Rember, claims to act on disruptive protein tangles that build up in brain cells as the condition progresses, and the outcome of early trials were presented last week at the International Conference on Alzheimer's disease in Chicago.

"It is very exciting," said RoseAnne Kenny, professor of gerontology at Trinity College Dublin. "However, they are preliminary data, they are small numbers [of participants on the trial] and it's important to bear in mind that it may not cure Alzheimer's disease but rather slow down the Alzheimer's process."

In the condition, a protein called tau aggregates, and forms hair-like tangles inside brain cells, she explained. In the lab Rember, or methylthioninium chloride, reportedly dissolved tau tangles in cells and prevented more from forming. The research, carried out by the University of Aberdeen and Singapore-based company TauRx Therapeutics, also showed that the drug slowed the loss of cognitive function in animal models. But the headline-grabbing results came from the phase II human trial, in which 321 people with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease received doses of Rember or a placebo three times each day. Analyses confirmed that cognitive decline was slowed by a rate of 81 per cent over a year with the drug.

Prof Kenny added that researchers at the Cognitive Research Studies group at St James's Hospital and TCD hoped to be involved in larger trials of the drug. She also expressed surprise at media claims during the week that taking cholesterol-lowering drugs, statins, could halve the risk of developing dementia. The reports followed a five-year study in the US that looked at statin-taking behaviour and decline in cognitive function or the onset of dementia in a small cohort of people over the age of 60 in California.

However, she noted that previous studies on statins and cognitive decline have not generally indicated such a large reduction in the risk.

The question will be taken up by the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (Tilda), which will look at cholesterol levels, statin medication and cognitive function in a cohort of 10,000 people aged 65 or over, including a sub-group of the "oldest old" who are over 80 years of age, she said.