Drug slows Alzheimer's march

An experimental drug that calms brain activity could help patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer's disease at the time they are losing the ability to care for themselves, say researchers.

The drug, called Memantine, slows signalling in the over-excited brain cell that is associated not only with Alzheimer's but with other brain diseases, including Parkinson's.

In doing so, it slows the progression of Alzheimer's, which gradually robs patients of their ability to remember, to find their way around, and to bathe and dress themselves.

The researchers presented their findings at a meeting of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry in Orlando, Florida.

There is no cure for Alzheimer's, and the drugs used to treat it, such as Aricept, slow progression of the disease only in its early stages.

The Alzheimer's Association predicts that by 2050 more than 14 million people in the United States will develop the disease. At present it affects 4 million Americans.

"Memantine is the first efficacious treatment for moderate to severe Alzheimer's, which is a big chunk of the disease," said Barry Reisberg, a psychiatrist and Alzheimer's specialist at New York University School of Medicine, who led the study.

This stage of Alzheimer's lasted about 2 1/2 years.

"It is the stage of the disease when family members are the most burdened," Dr Reisberg said.

"Over the course of this stage of Alzheimer's disease, patients progressively lose the ability to pick out their clothes and to put on their clothes, to bathe without assistance, and become incontinent.

"They usually can't give you their correct address and usually can't give you the name of the President. They still know their own name."

Dr Reisberg's team tested Memantine on 252 patients at this stage of the disease. Half got the drug and half a placebo.

Researchers, who did know which patients got the drug, watched and recorded their progress.

"The Memantine was very, very well-tolerated," Dr Reisberg said.

"There was a marked slowing of the functional problems of the patient."

Depending on the test used, the drug either slowed deterioration entirely for six months, or cut the rate in half.

The drug blocks the transmission of NMDA, one of the brain's messenger chemicals that becomes overactive with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

The next step is to see how long the slowing lasts, and then to test the drug on patients at various stages of the disease.

Forest Laboratories is applying for US approval of the drug this year.

The Danish pharmaceuticals group Lundbeck, which holds some rights to the drug in Europe, Canada, Australia and South Africa, said last week that it had been recommended for approval by a European Union assessment committee.

- REUTERS

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