The Upheaval in Alzheimer ' s Research and Clinical Development

It seems that the tipping point has been reached in the Alzheimer's research and development community, in the sense that it is becoming more widely accepted that new approaches are needed. The failure to produce significant benefits to patients via clearance of amyloid from the brain by immunotherapy has spurred a great deal of theorizing, and several new and promising lines of work. For example, working on restoring age-related declines in drainage of cerebrospinal fluid might remove all metabolic waste from the brain. Alternatively, a focus on neuroinflammation and the role of dysfunctional microglia is suggested, particularly by studies of senolytics showing benefits in mouse models resulting from removal of senescent microglia. The monolithic focus on amyloid is giving way to a period of greater experimentation and diversity in clinical development, and this can only be a good thing when it comes to making progress towards effective treatments for Alzheimer's disease. In the last five years, as several large clinical trials testing drugs for Alzheimer's disease failed, the field came to a stark conclusion: These approaches did nothing to slow down - let alone reverse - the course of the disease once patients already exhibited symptoms of early dementia. The failed trials, along with the dawning realization that the disease unfolds over decades, have put the entire field on a reset-to develop and test interventions that can be used much earlier, to discover new t...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs