Medicines developed for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease have shown encouraging results in the treatment of memory disorders in Britain and the United States.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common brain degenerative and slowly progressing memory disease.
Now the new drug is being hailed as a turning point in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.
Global research confirm, that the new drug, donanemab, may be a crucial step in the development of curative treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. According to the study, the drug slows down cognitive decline. They reported on it Financial Times and the British Broadcasting Corporation BBC.
The US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly’s study involved 1,736 people with mild to moderate symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Their average age was 73 years. Half of the subjects received an injection of the drug every four weeks for 18 months. The other half were the control group and received a placebo injection.
By the end of the study, the drug was found to slow down the progression of the disease by about a third. The drug worked most effectively in people with early stages of the disease. The research results are published In Journal of the American Medical Association.
In Britain, the country’s drug control authority is currently evaluating whether the drug can be used in the country’s healthcare.
At the beginning of July, an Alzheimer’s drug called Leqembi, which works on the same principle as donanemab, was approved for the US market. Like donanemab, Leqembi slows down cognitive decline in patients who are in the early stages of the disease, reports include The New York Times.
Finnish professor: “Significant result”
Professor of functional neuroimaging Vesa Kiviniemi The University of Oulu estimates that the drug donanemab does not cure the disease completely. According to Kiviniemi, the drug is still a great step forward in the treatment of Alzheimer’s.
– This is a significant result in that it clearly slowed down the progression of the disease.
Kiviniemi reminds that medicines based on antibodies have their own problems, which still require further research.
The antibody drug helps in the early stages of the disease by removing a protein that accumulates in the brains of people with this type of dementia.
The drug works in Alzheimer’s disease, but not in other types of dementia, such as vascular dementia.
In the development of effective medicines, Kiviniemi calls for patience.
– Yes, let’s move forward here. Breakthroughs are expected, but science is about taking small steps.
THL: Memory disorders are a national disease in Finland
In Finland, there is a demand for an effective medicine. According to the Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare (THL), memory disorders are a national disease in Finland.
THL estimates that there are almost 200,000 people with dementia in Finland. According to estimates, approximately 14,500 people in Finland fall ill with memory loss every year.
According to the health library Duodecim, about 70-80 percent of all people suffering from dementia have Alzheimer’s disease.
Although the medicine is a great step in the treatment of Alzheimer’s, according to Vesa Kiviniemi, he still wants to remind us of the importance of prevention.
– Smoking and excessive eating should be stopped. Sufficient sleep, movement and healthy lifestyles are worth remembering. With them, about 40 percent of the risk factors for memory disorders can be controlled, says Kiviniemi.
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