Remember Rember - July 30, 2008
Posted for Tim Sands
There has been news this week of two new drugs that could slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Both studies were announced at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease in Chicago. The drugs target different proteins that underlie the degenerative symptoms of the disease.
The first team from Aberdeen University in the UK and Aberdeen spin-out company TauRX Therapeutics based in Singapore, unveiled the drug called Rember that dissolves the bundles of tau protein fibres that cause brain cell death, leading to the disease symptoms.
The drug is based on the chemical methylthioninium chloride, better known as the commonplace lab dye, methylene blue, and the BBC reports that the effect of the drug on tau was discovered 20 years ago by lead researcher Claude Wischik in a lab accident. If so, the accident was a happy one as the phase II clinical trial on 321 patients showed that patients treated with the drug did not show any significant decline in cognitive function over the course of 19 months, while patients without the drug showed a marked decline.
"This first modestly sized trial in humans is potentially exciting," says Clive Ballard, director of research at the Alzheimer’s Society. "It suggests the drug could be over twice as effective as any treatment that is currently available. However we are not there yet. Larger scale trials are now needed to confirm the safety of this drug and establish how far it could benefit the thousands of people living with this devastating disease.”
A second study announced at the conference, and published online in Lancet Neurology this month, also reveals the results of phase II trials of another drug, called PBT2. This works by counteracting the accumulation of the protein amyloid-beta that can build up to form devastating plaques in the brain.
Those patients on the highest dosage of the drug for the 12 week duration of the 78-patient strong study performed significantly better than controls in tests of cognitive function but unfortunately not in memory tests. The researchers suspect this may be because memory declines more slowly than cognitive function so any improvements may not have been picked up by the study.
Further trials for both drugs are still pending, with phase III trials for Rember due to begin next year, so we will have to wait a few more years to know if these are bound for the pharmacy shelves.
Comments
Hi,
This is Annelle with http://www.bigthink.com/
In light of your recent post about the new Alzheimer's drug going to human clinical trials,
http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2008/07/remember_rember.html
I thought that you might be interested in a series of interviews we have conducted with research scientists engaged in the process of developing trials.
For example, we recently interviewed Dr. Chudy Nduaka, Pfizer's Associate Director of Clinical Development. To hear him discuss his ground-breaking research, link to his interview here:
http://www.bigthink.com/user/dr-chudy-nduaka
Clinical trials researcher Sonia Patel also gives a great explanation of the difficulty of explaining to people what exactly her life as a scientist entails.
("Re: What surprises people about your job?")
http://www.bigthink.com/experts/sonia-patel
We also interviewed researcher/Rhodes scholar/rockband member Pardis Sobeti, whose work revealed genes involved in drug resistance and in evading the immune system, giving researchers potential targets for new therapies and vaccines.
http://www.bigthink.com/user/dr-pardis-sabeti
And Dr. Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa, a John Hopkins neurosurgeon and researcher who 20 years ago hopped a border fence from Mexico to work as a migrant farm worker.
http://www.bigthink.com/experts/browse-by-name/dr-alfredo-quinones-hinojosa/1
All of our videos are easily embeddable by clicking on the envelope icon on the bottom right corner of each clip. The embed codes appear in the first field. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to e-mail either of our editors, Sean McManus (sean@bigthink.com) or Brett Dobbs (brett@bigthink.com). We hope you enjoy Big Think, as we enjoy The Great Beyond!
Thank you!
Annelle
Sincerely,
Annelle
Posted by: Annelle | July 31, 2008 06:48 PM
How can I get my partner (with dementia) onto one of these trials of "rember"?
Posted by: Geoff Swaffield | August 15, 2008 01:52 PM
How do I get my mother in the clinical trial? She has a very rare form called picks. She also shows ther very strange symptoms.
Posted by: Tonya Jackson | August 31, 2008 04:18 AM
Lisa Jones here. Another desperate person trying to find the next case study for my mother. Please just give us some info. When will the next case study begin? Where will it take place? How many people will be excepted? What is the criteria for acceptance? Anything PLEASE. Anyone out there that has any info please email me/lisa at thebingoking@bellsouth.net
Sincerest Thanks
Lisa Jones
850-326-3843
Posted by: Lisa Jones | August 31, 2008 11:32 PM
Please give us info on the phase 3 trial.
Posted by: kim peer | January 27, 2009 07:00 AM
Please send me info of the phase 3 trial. My wife is only 63 and has only just been diagnosed Alzheimers at the Cambridge Memory Clinic at Addenbrookes Hospital. Apart from her short term memory loss, she is in very good health.
Please Help Her, she has expressed her wishes to be involved with the trial.
Posted by: David Huckle | May 14, 2009 08:38 PM