Using monoclonal antibodies to eat up amyloid plaques in the Alzheimer brain continues to be an important focus of Alzheimer's research. Aduhelm/aducanumab traveled a rocky road to get to a tentative and controversial FDA approval. While approved for use, it's best to view its current use as a continued clinical trial. Lecanemab/BAN2401, on the other hand, is still in a phase 3 clinical trial, and (as we said earlier) is looking more promising. Nevertheless, there are naysayers who contend that, long term, the monoclonal antibody is the wrong horse to bet on. (You know them by the "mab" on the end of their names.)
This morning, I received news from my friend Mike about the failure of another mab -- gantenerumab. It made its way to a phase 3 clinical trial but failed to significantly impede the progress of the disease. So its sponsor, Roche, is giving up on it. You can read more here.
For my money, this and other failures and weaknesses of the mabs indicates that researchers should be looking harder at other ways of treating the disease that we have discussed. It's not clear that removing amyloid plaques from the brain does more than slow progress of the disease; it's not a cure. (Of course, significant slowing of the disease is still a blessing to a family struggling with it.)
What other ways? We've written about the possible role of gum disease in initiation and progress of the disease. Research continues on that. We also wrote about research on a vaccine approach to dealing with it.
There's still a lot going on in the world of Alzheimer's research, but it's complicated by what an incredibly complex and poorly understood disease this is!
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