Boston medical experts hope to beat Alzheimer’s disease by testing a potential treatment on patients who don’t have symptoms but are at risk for the progressive disease.
Potential Treatment For Alzheimer’s Disease
Brigham and Women’s Hospital is a participant in the global AHEAD Study, an Alzheimer’s clinical trial examining whether an investigational medication can reduce or stop the first brain changes in those who are predisposed to getting the illness later in life.
The researchers are looking for subjects for a four-year clinical trial in which they will test lecanemab — a recently FDA-approved Biogen medicine for people with Alzheimer’s symptoms — in patients as young as 55 years old who are at risk of developing symptoms as they age.
“My hope is we find a treatment, coupled with lifestyle, that prevents the onset of Alzheimer’s disease for people who might have a higher risk,” Seth Gale, a neurologist who’s co-director of the Brain Health Program in the Division of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology.
Alzheimer’s disease is an irreversible, degenerative brain disorder that affects over 6.5 million Americans and gradually damages memory and thinking skills, as well as the ability to perform simple tasks.
AHEAD Trial
While the precise causes of Alzheimer’s are unknown, the disease is distinguished by changes in the brain, such as amyloid beta plaques and neurofibrillary, or tau, tangles, which result in the loss of neurons and their connections. These modifications have an impact on a person’s ability to remember and think.
The AHEAD trial is examining the effect of lecanemab on healthy persons who have amyloid in their brain, a condition known as preclinical Alzheimer’s disease.
MRI scans; memory and thinking tests; IV infusions of the investigational medication (or placebo) that attempts to help eliminate amyloid plaques from the brain; and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans to screen for amyloid plaques and tau tangles linked with Alzheimer’s are all part of the trial.
The total worldwide enrollment goal for the study is 1,400 people, and the researchers hope to complete enrollment by the end of the year. The Brigham site has nine participants as of now, and the site has the “capacity to have much more than that,” Gale said.
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