After a lull of nearly 2 decades, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved some novel drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease since 2021. Most of these drugs are antibody therapies targeting toxic protein aggregates in the brain. Their approval has sparked enthusiasm and controversy in equal measure. The core question remains: Are these drugs making a real difference? In this Special Feature, we investigate.
Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease that involves a gradual and irreversible decline in memory, thinking, and, eventually, the ability to perform daily activities. Aging is the leading risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease, and a rapidly aging population has made it a public health crisis.
In 2019,
However, until recently, efforts to develop disease-modifying therapies for Alzheimer’s disease have not been successful.
Most of the clinical research to develop disease-modifying therapies for Alzheimer’s has focused on targeting the beta-amyloid protein, whose abnormal accumulation is generally considered to lead to the development of this neurodegenerative disorder.
Aducanumab, an antibody-targeting amyloid-beta protein deposits, received Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
However, the clinical trials involving aducanumab failed to produce consistent improvements in cognitive function, which led Biogen, the company that produces it, to announce that it will eventually suspend its sales.
Since then, two other anti-amyloid antibodies, Biogen’s lecanemab and Eli Lily’s donanemab, have demonstrated an ability to slow…
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