A cure for Alzheimer’s disease? Every time we are closer. Now, an experimental therapy developed by researchers at the University of Zurich (Switzerland) has managed to reduce the beta-amyloid protein plaques associated with Alzheimer’s, thus reducing the cognitive deterioration of the disease.
The new treatment is based on human antibodies that decrease the amount of beta-amyloid proteins located in the brain of patients with mild Alzheimer’s, hindering the advancement of cognitive decline in its earliest stages.
And it is that these proteins in the brain play a crucial role in the development of Alzheimer’s symptoms, favoring neurodegeneration or synaptic dysfunction. Thus, with the first experiments carried out in mice with this new experimental drug with aducanumab, experts have shown that it effectively reduces the levels of these negative protein deposits.
The researchers involved in the study are optimistic about using this antibody , stating that the dose and duration of treatment are essential to see results.
Thus, in the human trial, the experts counted 165 Alzheimer’s patients with mild cognitive impairment and amyloid plaques . Participants received monthly injections of this drug or a placebo for 54 weeks, one year. After this time , the presence of the protein had been considerably reduced in those patients who had been treated with the antibody , being seen more palpably in those who had received the highest doses of aducanumab. Those who had been treated with placebo did not experience any change.
This is undoubtedly a breakthrough. We will have to wait for trials with a larger sample of volunteers to confirm the success of this treatment and if we are facing a cure for Alzheimer’s disease.
The study has been published in the journal Nature.
