CHICAGO (Reuters) - Despite some recent dramatic failures, Alzheimer's disease researchers say they have never been more encouraged by the wealth of promising new treatments being studied for the brain-wasting disease.
"Twenty years ago we were at zero," said Dr. Steven DeKosky of the University of Pittsburgh, who has been studying the problem of addressing Alzheimer's for three decades.
DeKosky led one of three panels focused on new therapies featured this week at the International Conference on Alzheimer's disease in Chicago.
There is no cure for Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, and current drugs merely delay symptoms a bit.
While the most advanced drugs have focused on removing clumps of beta amyloid protein that forms plaques in the brain, researchers got their first look at therapies to address the toxic tangles caused by an abnormal build-up of the protein tau.
One, a nasal spray made by Allon Therapeutics Inc, improved some measures of memory in patients with mild cognitive impairment, a precursor to Alzheimer's, researchers reported this week. They said findings from the three-month study were strong enough for a longer, larger study.
Another, called Rember, is a refined version of an older drug used to treat urinary tract infections called methylthioninium chloride or methylene blue.
Researchers said the drug significantly improved key measures of thinking and memory in some people with moderate Alzheimer's disease for more than a year and a half.
TARGETING THE TANGLE
"We now show for the first time it is possible to halt the progression of Alzheimer's disease by targeting the tangle," Claude Wischik, of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and chairman of TauRX Therapeutics in Singapore, told the meeting.
Wischik said he thinks the compound keeps the tau protein from forming tangles inside brain cells and eventually from bursting them open.
"I can't make any statements about safety and efficacy," he added.
Another promising drug is Medivation Inc's Dimebon, developed in Russia as an antihistamine. An 18-month study of 183 patients done in that country showed it was safe and produced a persistent benefit.
