Alzheimer’s disease is a brain and progressive disorder that causes brain cells to waste away.
There are many pharmaceutical treatments available for this disease which are mainly given to the old aged patients.
Since the disease occurs in the later year of life so chances of brain cell deterioration are highly likely.
Last night, pharmaceutical giant Biogen trembled the crowd by announcing a new pharmaceutical drug, which is becoming the first line of treatment to slow down Alzheimer’s disease progression.
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The announcement was fully unexpected and it will be available to millions of people worldwide.
The scientist all around the world has some high profile dementia trials which got failed badly in the past.
But the overwhelming excitement popped up as last night the innovation in Alzheimer’s treatment line has been added.
This could change the life of memory loss patients who have been living their past life in bad mental conditions.
Presenting ADUCANUMAB
Aducanumab is the first monoclonal antibody that has been studied and passed since the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
The drug formula according to Biogen is strong enough to apply for licensing in Japan, the US, and the EU.
Biogen admitted that the results were gathered from 3,000 subjects with Alzheimer’s disease and the Aducanumab has shown efficacy in those patients in terms of decreasing the disease progression.
FDA has encouraged the Biogen company for this approach, said Michel Vounatsos, CEO of Biogen. ‘We got clear support from the FDA,’ he said.
‘With such a devastating disease that affects tens of millions worldwide, today’s announcement is truly heartening in the fight against Alzheimer’s.
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More About Aducanumab
Aducanumab will be the first drug that can slow Alzheimer’s and is ready to be introduced in the market after promising trials.
It will take 2 more years for the drug to finally appear in the market, this will further add $14.9 billion in the company’s market value.
In the UK, the Alzheimer cases have increased to 500,00 where millions of more are suffering from this brain degenerative disorder.
The drugs that are being given to the patients have approved 15 years ago and since then no progressive work was done on it.
How Aducanumab Works?
The proper mechanism of action of Aducanumab is the blocking of Amyloid beta, a harmful and toxic protein in the human brain that accumulates plaque in the brain area.
These clusters of Amyloid proteins cause the interference between the brain cells and their communications which leads to multiple functions irregularities.
In March 2020. Biogen dropped its two main studies about Alzheimer’s and Aducanumab because they didn’t think the Amyloid Beta is the reason for this disease.
Unless another group of experts called for theoretical studies where they narrowly saw Alzheimer’s disease effect on the brain and the most reasonable factors for dementia.
This led Biogen to reconsider its decision and they conducted multiple smaller studies with 3,285 patients.
Amongst them, 2,000 patients were given the dose of Aducanumab for about 18 months, according to the sources individuals who took the higher dose were more responsive to the treatment.
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Expert’s Opinion about Aducanumab
While some experts are being positive about Aducanumab therapy for Alzheimer’s patients, some medical experts are showing disregard about this generic.
Samuel Gandy of the Mount Sinai Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centre in New York said: ‘I want to believe, but I’m not ready to suspend disbelief.’
We have been down this road before.
We are only being allowed to see a cherry-picked selection of data and I suspect once we see the full results we will see that the clinical effect is very small indeed.’ Professor Rob Howard from University College London.
Professor Bart De Strooper from United Kingdom Dementia Research Institute, said ‘I hope this signifies a turning point.’
3 Stages of Alzheimer’s Disease
- In the early stage of Alzheimer’s disease progression, which is also called Mild Alzheimer’s, the person functions normally both physically and mentally with a slight memory lapse.
- Moderate Alzheimer defines the middle-stage disease in which a person gets confused with words because of this he/she becomes angry. Sudden behavioral changes are also noted in this stage and are run for the longest time in a person’s life.
- The late stage of Alzheimer’s disease is where the patient loses the ability to reply to others. He/she is usually unable to start or carry a conversation and the physical movements are also minor.
Adding omega-3 fatty acids in your diet, performing moderate exercise and social interaction can slow down the disease progression naturally as there is not any known treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.
How to Know If a Person Has Alzheimer?
More than 5 million people in the US alone are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, the condition disorients the memory and thinking skills that are used for doing simple tasks.
The condition starts to worsen up after age 65 where episodes of dementia become prominent.
Checking on Alzheimer’s signs and symptoms will help you assess and identify the disease.
- Memory loss –short term and long term
- Changes in mood
- Rise in suspicious thoughts
- Disorientation
- Difficulty in speaking, walking and swallowing
- Amnesia (permanent memory loss)
Sources:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/22/biogen-soars-40percent-on-hopes-of-alzheimers-treatment-approval.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/alzheimers-disease-dementia-drug-biogen-aducanumab-a9167121.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/22/health/alzheimers-dementia-aducanumab.html