So I haven't posted for a while. One of our children was married over in Seattle, and, as an elder in our church, I've had a lot to do there. And then I sometimes have slow periods finding content I think you'd find interesting.
For those interested, I've given up on acupuncture for insomnia. At least according to my Fitbit, I had some minor, transitory improvement in sleep quality, but I can't really say it did anything for my insomnia. So I just continue to adapt to life the way it is.
But what’s been going on in the world of Alzheimer’s research? Are there new drugs coming? Any breakthroughs in understanding the disease? Well, here are a few items of interest that I’ve noticed. It’s certainly not complete, and the items are in no particular order. Spoiler alert: there are no breakthroughs. But these were interesting to me.
Fosgonimeton, a drug with a history of safety, was expected to improve cognitive and daily functioning in adults with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. But it failed to meet its goals in a recent second phase of a three-phase clinical trial. The drug was being developed by Athira Pharma. It is not designed to remove amyloid plaques. After all, removing amyloid plaques may not be the best approach to treating the disease anyway. There were some positive improvements in some of the test subjects, so this drug may not be dead yet.
Alzamend Neuro and Massachusetts General Hospital are preparing to conduct a Phase 2 clinical trial of a candidate treatment code named AL001. This is an oral therapy being developed for dementia related to Alzheimer’s disease. It will use a new system for delivering lithium to the brain. So far, pre-clinical studies and the Phase 1 trial have demonstrated its safety with a small group of test subjects … the main purpose of Phase 1 trials. But I don’t see any claim that the earlier trials found any improvement in memory and cognition.
Amylyx Pharmaceuticals is testing an oral therapy code named AMX0035. In a recent trial, the study drug reduced the levels of several biomarkers associated with Alzheimer’s disease. A company press release stated, “The results from this exploratory analysis suggest that AMX0035 engages important pathways implicated in the [development] of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.” Despite these results, data from a Phase 2 trial showed that six months of oral treatment failed to slow cognitive decline compared with a placebo.
In a proof-of-concept clinical trial, treatment with a prospective pharmaceutical, CT1812, previously called Elayta, slowed the decline of cognitive function among adults with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. That’s according to results after about six months of treatment at trial sites in the U.S., Europe, and Australia. In a company press release, Lisa Ricciardi, president and CEO of CT1812’s developer Cognition Therapeutics said, “The trial showed that after 182 days of treatment, [CT1812] demonstrated evidence of clinical improvements on cognition coupled with a favorable safety and tolerability profile.” Ricciardi added that the findings “will inform dose selection and provide a foundation for advancing [the therapy] to the next stage of clinical development.” Of course, a “proof of concept trial” comes even before a Phase 1 trial. So this one has a long way to go.
As I found out when I was first diagnosed, donepezil (Aricept) can cause significant gastro-intestinal issues. That’s why I stopped taking it. This is a problem with this whole class of drugs, the acetylcholinesterase inhibitors. Now, the FDA has approved the oral therapy Zunveyl (benzgalantamine), previously known as ALPHA-1062. Zunveyl carries the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor galantamine through the digestive track and then into the blood stream before releasing it. This bypasses the stomach issues. According to Dr. Elaine Peskind, (with whom I am acquainted), an Alzheimer’s expert at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, approval of the drug “marks a meaningful step forward in improving the quality of life for those living with Alzheimer’s and their families.”
Administration of Montelukast oral film, an existing therapy being repurposed by Intelgenx to treat mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease, led to significant improvements in patients’ cognition versus a placebo. This was according to a report of a Phase 2 clinical trial. The drug was approved years ago as a treatment for asthma, but it may have value in treating Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. But there was a confusion factor in the report summary: “[W]hen considered across all doses of [Montelukast], no benefit to general cognition was observed when compared to change under placebo.” Go figure.
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