Alzheimer's Drug Slows Cognitive Decline in Key Study (nytimes.com) 44
The pharmaceutical companies Biogen and Eisai said this week that a drug they are developing for Alzheimer's disease had slowed the rate of cognitive decline in a large late-stage clinical trial. From a report: The strong results boost the drug's chances of winning approval and offer renewed hope for a class of Alzheimer's drugs that have repeatedly failed or generated mixed results. The positive data also offer Biogen a second chance after the company's disastrous rollout of another Alzheimer's drug, Aduhelm. That medication won regulatory approval last year despite little evidence that it could slow cognitive decline, received only sharply limited coverage by Medicare and has proved to be a commercial failure.
The results appear stronger for the new medication, lecanemab. Cognitive decline in the group of volunteers who received lecanemab was reduced by 27 percent compared with the group who received a placebo in the clinical trial, which enrolled nearly 1,800 participants with mild cognitive impairment or mild Alzheimer's disease, the companies said. The trial of lecanemab, which is administered via intravenous infusion, was the largest to date to test whether clearing the brain of plaques formed by the accumulation of a protein called amyloid could slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Aduhelm is designed to work in a similar way.
The results appear stronger for the new medication, lecanemab. Cognitive decline in the group of volunteers who received lecanemab was reduced by 27 percent compared with the group who received a placebo in the clinical trial, which enrolled nearly 1,800 participants with mild cognitive impairment or mild Alzheimer's disease, the companies said. The trial of lecanemab, which is administered via intravenous infusion, was the largest to date to test whether clearing the brain of plaques formed by the accumulation of a protein called amyloid could slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Aduhelm is designed to work in a similar way.
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We've seen worse - https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re: Bless America! (Score:1, Offtopic)
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In meaning of the word literally that ship has sailed. The dictionaries updated the definitions long ago.
Re: Bless America! (Score:2, Informative)
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He's embracing Dark Brandon. Like the Whitehouse twitter calling out politicians who were forgiven PPP loans or took credit for things they voted against.
Re: Bless America! (Score:1, Offtopic)
...slowed the rate of cognitive decline? (Score:2)
So, how does that actually help?
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So, how does that actually help?
If you're asking that you might need this medication, plus some other ones.
Re: ...slowed the rate of cognitive decline? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:...slowed the rate of cognitive decline? (Score:5, Insightful)
Since cognitive decline isn't a binary proposition, the degree to which someone might function and might have quality of life very much does matter.
A friend of mine's mother-in-law suffered severe mental deterioration about twenty years before she actually died. Her brain was effectively broken, she couldn't do anything to support or take care of herself, required a full-time caregiver to prevent her from hurting herself or destroying things, but was otherwise healthy as an ox.
If a drug had managed to slow the worsening of symptoms, then perhaps she could have at least cared for herself, to a degree, at home and without 24/7 oversight. That would have made for a huge difference in quality of life not only for her, but for her daughter and son-in-law. They basically elected not to have any kids because of how much attention the woman required, caring for her denied them the option because it was too risky with her in the household.
Granted this is my opinion, but I'd rather someone's brain decline at no faster a rate than the body does. I would rather those at end-of-life be sound-of-mind, at least they don't increase the burden upon those helping to take care of them.
Re:...slowed the rate of cognitive decline? (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, eventually you're going to die of something. Spending your remaining years with more of your marbles intact is preferable to spending them most of them gone. For example it would be nice to remember your name, recognize your family members, be able to take a walk around the block without getting lost and having the police pick you up, even if your chess game isn't what it used to be.
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Well, eventually you're going to die of something. Spending your remaining years with more of your marbles intact is preferable to spending them most of them gone.
I'm sure that's what it will say on the sales brochure, yes.
People with Alzheimer don't suffer, if I get Alzheimers I want it to be over as soon as possible without giving all my inheritance to a drug company.
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People with Alzheimer don't suffer, if I get Alzheimers I want it to be over as soon as possible without giving all my inheritance to a drug company.
Get a gun. Or a bottle of pills and some alcohol. Drive off a cliff. Jump off a tall building. Rope tied a sturdy beam. Turn your car on with the garage door closed.*
There a multitude of ways to end things quickly. You just have to do it and not whine about giving money to those "evil" corporations.
* As a side note, this won't be possible once everyone dr
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People with Alzheimer don't suffer
Bull. Shit.
People in the final stage of Alzheimer's disease don't remember that they're suffering from minute to minute, but they're still suffering. Worse, early stage Alzheimer's patients suffer from the agony of occasionally forgetting things that aren't just nice to know (where are my car keys, where did I park the car), but also occasionally forget things like their grandchildren's names. Or their grandchildren. Knowing that you should remember something vital to your identity can be torture. Some
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People with Alzheimer don't suffer, if I get Alzheimers I want it to be over as soon as possible without giving all my inheritance to a drug company.
Utterly vile ignorance. Reassess after spending 3 years changing fouled clothing and bedding twice in a night, dealing with "sundowning" psychosis every evening, and being begged repeatedly to end the other person's life. Pontificating ignorant cunt.
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Giving drug companies money is what keeps the hunt for a cure alive. It is what will enable the kid in a lab with the cure idea to get checks from investors. What good is passing on money to your inheritors if they or their progeny can succumb to Alzheimers or other debilitating disease? Isn't giving them a cure a better inheritance? Not having to worry about them or their loved ones getting Alzheimer's has to be worth something.
Re:...slowed the rate of cognitive decline? (Score:5, Informative)
Well, speaking from the experience of someone whose mother suffered with Alzheimer's for about 15 years before she passed away, (a) you don't get the choice of having it over quickly and (b) you end up giving your inheritance to the nursing home.
Re:...slowed the rate of cognitive decline? (Score:5, Insightful)
So, how does that actually help?
Toward the end, during one of his more lucid moments, I'd had the chance to talk to my Grandfather one last time but in many ways I often wish I hadn't. Not because I didn't love him dearly, I do, but because he couldn't remember me - at all - and it was making him upset. He told me that he understood I was his Grandson because his wife told him I was, but that he couldn't remember me and he spent the whole time apologizing for not remembering me - it really made him uncomfortable when I told him I loved him and didn't hold it against him because, in his eyes, he's got a stranger telling him he loves him.
The man I talked to definitely wasn't my Grandfather and while a part of me is glad I got to hear his voice one last time - he went non-verbal a couple days after this call - another part of me is upset that my last memory of my Grandfather is him telling me how sorry he was he couldn't remember me while also telling me how uncomfortable I was making him by telling him I loved him.
If a drug like this can help some other grandkid get one final conversation with their actual grandparent, not the stranger who's inhabiting their meat suit, then it helps quite a damned bit. Hell, Alzheimer's tends to run in families - so it's likely my Mom will get it as she gets older, if a drug like this can stave off the period where she's a stranger in her own skin I'll take it.
Alzheimer's is a horrific disease where eventually your brain forgets how to keep you alive.
I had to watch one of my favourite Aunties slowly suffocate as her mind was liquified by the disease, her autonomous systems shutting down one by one. I will never forget the abject look of horror on her face as she was dying, the petrified look of desperation as she grappled with not knowing who she was or where she was or what was going on while slowly getting weaker while getting angry at the strangers standing around watching her instead of helping because she so far gone she doesn't realizing there's nothing we can do. It sickens me that we, as a society, will spare our pets such "inhumane" conditions while making our dearest loved ones live in abject torture right up to their last breath.
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Dementia does this, too. My grandmother has deteriorated severely. For some weird reason, I'm one of the people she does remember, and she seems to take it for granted that I'm supposed to be there if I'm around. She's in a nursing home now, but when she still lived in her own house, one of her other grandsons used to come around to mow the lawns and tend the gardens. She'd completely lost all memory of him. She'd ask him who he was, and why he was there. She's convinced her daughter only has two sons
Key study (Score:4, Insightful)
Finally I'll be able to find my car keys.
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Finally I'll be able to find my car keys.
The real question is whether or not you'll remember what you wanted to do when you walk through a doorway [bbc.com].
Re: Key study (Score:2)
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That's great, but you don't own a car.
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but you don't own a car
I certainly do. It's parked around here, somewhere [wikipedia.org].
Difference (Score:5, Interesting)
The difference between this drug and some of the previous ones, including Biogens own aduhelm, that failed sensationally, is that they targeted soluble amyloid protofibrils instead of the amyloid plaques themselves. Amyloid protofibrils are in the cell membrane and fuck shit up there, whereas amyloid plaques are outside the cell.
PR BS (Score:2)
The amount by which it slows it is tiny.
Aduhelm (Score:4, Informative)
I see your Aducanumab at $56,000 a year per patient, paid for by the government via Medicare. I want some of that action. Thank you, that is all.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Versus (Score:3)
And fecal matter transplants. [clinicaltrials.gov]
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> I'd like to see the difference between this and a dietary change.
Yeah, plaques are the symptom of inflammation, not the cause. There's a valid reason that Alzheimer's is called Type III Diabetes.
Ketogenic diets, or even just eliminating processed foods has a beneficial effect more than these drugs.
On the other hand, we don't care about such things in the US, so if an oldster wants to drink Ensure sugar bombs and hit the Golden Corral whipped-cream tower for dinner on their SS check, we have IV drugs n
Is this targeting the amyloid plaque? (Score:2)
Re:Is this targeting the amyloid plaque? (Score:4, Informative)
No. First, there is no evidence that the original studies fabricated data -- that would have been uncovered a long time ago. I believe you are talking about a 2006 study, that has little to do with the amyloid hypothesis in general. The 2006 fabricated was regarding a specific oligomer called AB*56.
To be taken with at least one pillar of salt (Score:1)
I'm all for showing progress but at the same time I don't like what amounts to PR fluff to generate false-hope. Slashdot Editors, please title things with the appropriate skepticism and don't give into the temptation to click-bate or take pharma news-release info at face value.
Readers and followers of science subjects have long become tired of the "WE GOT IT GUYS"->"Oh shit it didn't work" treadmill so please post things with **definite** and **verifiable** i.e. ***reproduced*** results.
Also, given the n
Keeping my fingers crossed (Score:2)
Reality check (Score:2)
Not much help (Score:2)
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They are hoping the drugs will deliver... profits.