Major boost in dementia fight: Doctors close to stopping cruel condition

DEMENTIA will become a treatable condition within a decade, scientists predicted last night.

 

Scientists think that dementia could be curable within ten years

 

They said major breakthroughs are set to make the currently incurable condition manageable, allowing years of continued mental function.

The optimistic forecast came with Britain leading the race to develop drugs that slow the progress of dementia, which includes Alzheimer’s disease.

Professor John Hardy, of the Institute of Neurology at University College London, said: "I think Alzheimer’s will be treatable. I hope that by 2025 we will be able to slow the disease.

 

“And because we have slowed the disease down, far fewer people will have clinically important dementia.

“I think we will get to a situation where we will manage it in the way we manage diabetes now. I can see a day where dementia will not be a major issue.”

Researchers are hopeful that two new treatments, now being tested in clinical trials, hold the key to the first effective and widely available medication.

And a daily pill to stave off the onset of mental decline is “plausible” in the future, world-renowned neurological scientist Professor Hardy believes. The two drugs are solanezumab and aducanumab, which are antibody infusions designed to destroy the build-up of amyloid, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s.

 

There will be 1 million people with dementia in the UK by 2025, according to the Alzheimer's Society

 

They are the first drugs to target underlying causes of Alzheimer’s, rather than simply mask its symptoms.

Currently prescribed treatments become progressively less effective as damage to the brain overwhelms their modest benefits.

Preliminary results suggest that solanezumab slows the breakdown in mental function by 34 per cent, if it is given early.

It works by destroying amyloid – deformed proteins in the brain that can build up between nerve cells to form sticky, toxic plaques.

The treatments, developed by pharmaceutical giants Eli Lilly and Biogen, could halt the breakdown in memory and thinking skills.

 

per cent of those in nursing homes have Alzheimer's

 

Professor Hardy said: “If those trials are successful it tells us immediately we’re on the right road. I think that will lead to a massive investment to develop other drugs that target amyloid in other ways. I think we are on target for some therapies by 2025. My suspicion is we will get better and better at slowing the disease process.”

Research shows that people who do not have a destructive enzyme called bace1 do not develop Alzheimer’s.

This has led researchers to speculate that a cheap, once-a-day statin-style pill could be taken by those with the enzyme, which plays a key role in generating amyloid.

Prof Hardy added: “I don’t expect to see a genuine reversal of the disease in my lifetime. One could imagine a pill you take every day that inhibits the enzyme – that is a plausible outcome.”

Clinical trials of aducanumab are set to start in the UK this year. Tests on 2,050 people with mild and moderate Alzheimer’s in 2012 suggested solanezumab was a failure.

  

There could be a cheap and easy pill to inhibit a harmful enzyme

 

Those given the drug fared no better than those given a placebo. Yet when statistics relating only to patients with a mild form of the disease were reanalysed, “statistically significant” data showed thinking and memory problems were reduced by a third.

Fresh results are expected in 18 months. Dr Simon Ridley, of Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “Dementia is caused by diseases and, through research, diseases can be beaten.”

Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia. Around 73 per cent of people in nursing homes have it, while in residential care homes the figure is 58 per cent.

Research shows it is the number one health concern for over-55s. One in three people born this year is expected to develop dementia.

There are now 850,000 sufferers, 15 per cent of whom require roundthe-clock care. It is feared by 2025 a million people will be affected, rising to two million by 2050.