Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, is estimated to affect 25 million people around the world with the number of diagnosed cases expected to rise dramatically in the near future.
Recently, an experimental drug, known as gantenerumab, has been developed by Roche Holding AG, the Swiss pharmaceutical company, show a method of removing amyloid plaques from the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients in a small early-stage study. The data was published in the Archives of Neurology on Monday.
The investigation concerning 16 patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s treated with regular infusions over two to seven months saw 15.6% to 35.7% reductions in cortical brain amyloid levels compared with placebo, Luca Santarelli, MD, of F. Hoffmann-La Roche in Basel, Switzerland, and colleagues found. From these findings, study group stated that patients who received monthly gantenerumab injections are seen a reductions of brain amyloid.
“Our objective was not only to demonstrate the effects of gantenerumab on brain amyloid, but also to start elucidating its mechanism of action, this is extremely important to fully understand the compound’s therapeutic potential for Alzheimer’s disease.” said Luca Santarelli, Global Head of Roche Neuroscience Disease Translational Area.
In the near future, Roche and colleagues will be to investigate whether removal of brain amyloid translates into clinical benefit for patients at doses of the experimental drug, gantenerumab, that are well tolerated and safe.
The company is currently enrolling patients for the SCarlet RoAD study, to evaluate efficacy and safety of gantenerumab in patients with early stage of Alzheimer’s disease.
Roche gave a forecasts that it is expected that the illness, which robs memory and ability to function, will affect about 63 million people by 2030, and 114 million by 2050 worldwide. Early stage study will be a on time solution for this disease.