New Alzheimer's Treatment Completes First Phase Of Testing

Arun Ghosh, at right, a Purdue professor of chemistry and medicinal chemistry, and graduate student Xiaoming Xu discuss the structure of an enzyme inhibitor designed to treat Alzheimer's disease. (Credit: Purdue News Service file photo/David Umberger)

ScienceDaily (Jan. 28, 2008) — A molecule designed by a Purdue University researcher to stop the debilitating symptoms of Alzheimer's disease has been shown in its first phase of clinical trials to be safe and to reduce biomarkers for the disease.

CoMentis, the pharmaceutical company developing the drug, announced on Jan. 7 completion of its Phase 1 study of a treatment based on the molecule. Results from the study indicate that the treatment is safe and well tolerated.

Arun Ghosh, a Purdue professor with a dual appointment in the departments of chemistry and medicinal chemistry and molecular pharmacology, designed the molecule that could allow for intervention in the disease's early stages.

The molecule, called a beta-secretase inhibitor, prevents the first step in a chain of events that leads to amyloid plaque formation in the brain. This plaque formation creates fibrous clumps of toxic proteins that are believed to cause the devastating symptoms of Alzheimer's.

The study of 48 healthy volunteers showed dose-related reduction in plasma amyloid beta, a protein believed to be a key biomarker of Alzheimer's. Results showed a single dose of the drug produced a greater than 60 percent reduction of the biomarker. Subjects received one of six different doses or a placebo, and the study measured levels of the therapeutic drug and levels of the biomarker in the bloodstream.

CoMentis plans to begin a phase II clinical study of the drug, oral CTS-21166, in Alzheimer's patients in 2008.

Alzheimer's disease usually begins after age 60, and the risk increases with age. According to the National Institute on Aging, about 5 percent of men and women ages 65-74 have Alzheimer's disease, and nearly half of those 85 and older may have the disease, for which there is currently no effective treatment.

There is no conclusive test for Alzheimer's. Doctors are able to diagnose "probable Alzheimer's" through a combination of medical tests that include blood tests and brain scans and evaluations of brain function.

"The phase I clinical results are very exciting," Ghosh said. "We hope that this beta-secretase inhibitor drug will be one of the first disease modifying treatments that stops or reverses the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease."

Adapted from materials provided by Purdue University.

The helmet that could turn back the symptoms of Alzheimer's

By DAVID DERBYSHIRE - More by this author » Last updated at 10:47am on 25th January 2008

An experimental helmet which scientists say could reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease within weeks of being used is to be tried out on patients.

The strange-looking headgear - which has to be worn for ten minutes every day - bathes the brain with infra-red light and stimulates the growth of brain cells.

Its creators believe it could reverse the symptoms of dementia - such as memory loss and anxiety - after only four weeks.

Alzheimer's disease charities last night described the treatment as "potentially life- changing" - but stressed that the research was still at the very early stages.

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lead researcher at the University of Sunderland Dr Abdel Ennaceur and Durham University s Dr Paul Chazot are pictured with Dr Gordon Dougal and a prototype cognitive helmet

Around 700,000 Britons have dementia, with around 500,000 suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

The helmet is the creation of Dr Gordon Dougal, a director of Virulite, a medical research company based in County Durham.

It follows a study at the University of Sunderland which found infra-red light can reverse memory loss in mice.

Dr Dougal claims that only ten minutes under the hat a day is enough to have an effect.

"Currently all you can do with dementia is to slow down the rate of decay - this new process will not only stop that rate of decay but partially reverse it," he said.

Low level infra-red red is thought to stimulate the growth of cells of all types of tissue and encourage their repair. It is able to penetrate the skin and even get through the skull.

"The implications of this research at Sunderland are enormous - so much so that in the future we could be able to affect and change the rate at which our bodies age," he said.

"We age because our cells lose the desire to regenerate and repair themselves. This ultimately results in cell death and decline of the organ functions - for the brain resulting in memory decay and deterioration in general intellectual performance.

"But what if there was a technology that told the cells to repair themselves and that technology was something as simple as a specific wavelength of light?"

The study at Sunderland found that exposing middle-aged mice to infrared light for six minutes a day for ten days improved their performance in a three-dimensional maze. In the human trials, due to start this summer, the scientists will use levels of infra-red that occur naturally in sunlight.

Neuroscientist Paul Chazot, who helped carry out the research, said: "The results are completely new - this has never been looked at before."

An Alzheimer's Society spokesman said: "A treatment that reverses the effects of dementia rather than just temporarily halting its symptoms could change the lives of the hundreds of thousands of people. We look forward to further research to determine whether this technique could help improve cognition in humans."