Health Check: New possible experimental treatments for Alzheimer’s disease

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https://turnto10.com/features/health-landing-page/health-check-new-possible-experimental-treatments-for-alzheimers-disease

by BARBARA MORSE SILVA, turnto10.com

There are new experimental treatment possibilities for Alzheimer’s Disease.

“There are a lot of potential targets for therapy,” said Dr. Jonathan Drake, associate director of the Alzheimer’s Disease and Memory Disorders Center at Rhode Island Hospital.

For years, the protein — Amyloid — has been the target of treatments for those with Alzheimer’s Disease. Now, there are more studies targeting another protein in the brain: Tau.

“I do suspect that eventually there will be a combination therapy,” said Drake.

But first, he says they need to research experimental treatments separately to see what works. For this Tau study, called Tango, you need to have mild memory impairment.

“You need to be on a stable medication — one of the typical memory medications we have available in the clinic at the time and typically you need to have a study partner: someone who can come in with you regularly,” said Drake.

Another study goes after a different target.

“One of the aspects, and a critical aspect of Alzheimer’s Disease, is the physical loss of these connection of brain cells in the brain,” said Drake.

In this study, they’re using a new drug, which is similar to the one being used to treat another neurodegenerative disease: ALS.

“It has the potential to be disease-modifying and what I mean by that is many of the medications — or all of the medications we currently have — they help with the symptoms, they boost up brain activity, but they unfortunately don’t affect the overall pathological process that’s driving the disease,” said Drake.

The hope is to slow or even halt the progression in folks with mild to moderate disease, a group of patients Drake says are often underrepresented in studies.