Alzheimer's disease, in many ways, is decades behind diseases like cancer. It's now several decades since the first symptomatic treatments for Alzheimer's were discovered and licensed. A class of therapies called monoclonal antibodies have been one of the dominant areas of clinical trials. But this meeting showed for the first time that you not only could remove amyloid and remove a lot of it, but that translated into less cognitive decline,.
Back in November, researchers hailed the dawn of a new era of Alzheimer’s therapies. After decades of failure, a clinical trial finally confirmed that a drug, lecanemab, was able to slow cognitive decline in patients with early stages of the disease. The result may have been modest – a reduction in the decline in patients’ overall mental skills by 27% over 18 months – but it could not be more significant in the journey towards better understanding and treating the disease. Ian Sample speaks to Prof Nick Fox about the clinical trial results, if this could be the first of many new Alzheimer’s therapies, and whether we could one day see a cure.. Help support our independent journalism at
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