You can also add to your health journal encourading news about advances in the alzheimer's disease management. Here are some of them:
Italian startup MMI is attempting to treat Alzheimer's disease surgically
"The cause of Alzheimer's disease - amyloid plaques in the blood vessels of the brain - is a pure plumbing problem. They just need to be cleaned out. Surgically," says Mark Toland, CEO of the startup Medical Microinstruments (MMI). And this is not just another scam trying to make money. MMI has already raised $220M and it's the manufacturer of the world's most precise surgical robot, Symani, which is already successfully used in neurosurgery, breast reconstruction after cancer, and lymphatic drainage operations. In 2026 MMI received FDA approval to conduct clinical trials of surgical treatment for Alzheimer's disease. And the idea of the operation itself is not out of thin air. Several similar operations have already been performed in China - surgical injection of proteins to stimulate lymphatic drainage of the brain. And although they were carried out manually on conventional equipment, the effect was obvious. It was the method's author, Dr. Qingping Xie, who approached MMI for a joint project.
FDA approved Lecanemab for immunotherapy of Alzheimer's disease.
In 2023 Lecanemab became the second amyloid plaque-targeting antibody approved in the US, following the controversial approval of aducanumab two years ago. Another drug, donanemab, is expected to be approved soon. The drug was fast-tracked for approval based on its demonstrated significant therapeutic effect in the treatment of a serious disease. However, the "significance" is rather modest: it slows cognitive decline by only 27-35%. Furthermore, taking the drug is associated with significant risks. Specifically, it has been linked to cerebral edema and hemorrhage. Overall, however, this is a source of hope for the tens of millions of people suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
Biogen and Eisai are preparing new blockbuster against Alzheimer's disease.
In 2022, the FDA approved the first drug for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, Aduhelm (by Biogen). It raised many questions, but experts said the very fact that the drug was first released would pave the way for a breakthrough in the treatment of the disease. And perhaps now we are seeing the first step towards this breakthrough. Lecanemab, developed jointly by Biogen and the Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai, showed excellent results in phase 3 clinical trials. The trials involved 1,795 patients with early-stage Alzheimer's disease for 18 months, and 27% showed a slowdown in cognitive decline. For Aduhelm, this figure was 22%. Like Aduhelm, the new drug destroys amyloid plaques in the brain. The FDA is expected to review the trial results and issue approval by January 2023.
A new method will allow more detailed brain scanning for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's.
Alzheimer's disease is characterized by the presence of tangles composed of the protein tau. These tangles begin to accumulate in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease—sometimes decades before symptoms appear. Detecting them on PET scans is very difficult. During PET brain scans, image quality is often degraded by patient movement during the scan. Scientists from the American Society of Nuclear Medicine developed in 2021 a new technology to reduce the impact of patients' head movements, improving scan quality. Experiments were conducted using a PET scanner combined with an external motion tracker, which continuously measured head movement with extremely high accuracy. After combining data from the imaging devices, the researchers obtained images with significantly higher resolution than with conventional scans.
The FDA approved the first drug for Alzheimer's disease
After much deliberation, the FDA has finally approved Aduhelm (aducanumab) from Biiogen. This is the first drug in history that treats the causes (not the symptoms) of Alzheimer's disease. It is a monoclonal antibody that destroys amyloid plaques in the brain. These plaques are considered a probable cause of the disease. However, not everything is so clear and perfect with this drug. It does effectively destroy plaques, but how effectively it treats the disease remains unclear. Initially, the results of phase 3 clinical trials did not prove efficacy. Then the results were revised and some efficacy was supposedly found. However, the drug has side effects, including bleeding in the brain. However, many experts are confident that the approval of aducanumab will mark the beginning of a breakthrough in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.
Eli Lilly is once again aiming to defeat Alzheimer's by destroying plaques
For the past 15 years, we've seen failure after failure in attempts to create an effective drug against Alzheimer's disease. The most recent high-profile failure was last year, with the drug Solanezumab, by the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly. But the company isn't giving up and is continuing its work in this direction. Its new drug, donanemab, is again based on the amyloid plaque theory, but this time it targets a specific beta-amyloid called N3pG. More precisely, it stimulates the patient's own immune cells to destroy this beta-amyloid. And, according to the results of Phase 2 clinical trials, it showed unprecedented effectiveness – slowing neurodegeneration by 32% (based on standard metrics). The significance of this result is demonstrated by one simple fact: Eli Lilly shares rose 16%.
Lilly and Roche's Alzheimer's drugs fail clinical trials
In 2020 clinical trials of the drugs Solanezumab (Eli Lilly) and Gantenerumab (Roche) against Alzheimer's disease ended in failure, as they did not show sufficient improvement in patients' conditions over four years of testing. Both drugs are monoclonal antibodies that destroy beta-amyloid plaques in the brain (which are believed to be the cause of the disease). Howard Fillit, scientific director of the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF), says this is the end. The end of the hypothesis that beta-amyloid plaques cause Alzheimer's disease. They are likely just a symptom. The last major player that has not yet left the game is Biogen, which continues clinical trials of the anti-amyloid drug Aducanumab.