On April 11, 2019, the New England Journal of Medicine published a report on the abandonment of the prospective AD drug, verubecestat. Not only did it fail to improve cognition, some test subjects experienced worsening cognition when compared to the control group. The findings were summarized this week in ALZForum.
Verubecestat is a BACE1 inhibitor. In June, we reported on the failure of another BACE1 inhibitor which, it was hoped, would have removed amyloid proteins (actually, protein fragments) from the brain. The BACE1 inhibitor drugs may be effective in stopping the formation of new amyloid molecules in the brain, but that has not led to improved cognition in test subjects. If fact, test scores for subjects in the verubecestat test actually worsened. It's not clear why this occurred.
The article quotes a doctor at Mayo Clinic who said, “To be blunt, beta-amyloid lowering seems to be an ineffective approach, and it is
time to focus on other targets to move therapeutics for Alzheimer’s
disease forward.”
In my book, "Beating the Dementia Monster," I describe what has occurred since 2015 when I first knew I had memory problems. (You can find it on Amazon.com.) I have experienced remarkable improvement, and I’m certain that I can share valuable information with many others. In this second edition I continue my story to 2020 and provide greater understanding of how Alzheimer's advances and why what I did worked.
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