Drugs Chosen for Major Alzheimer's Trial

Newswise Leading scientists have selected the first drugs to be evaluated in a worldwide clinical study to determine whether they can prevent Alzheimers disease.

The pioneering trial, expected to start by early 2013, initially will test three promising drugs, each designed to target Alzheimers in different ways.

In people with inherited mutations that cause early-onset Alzheimers, the study will seek to identify whether the drugs can improve Alzheimers disease biomarkers and effectively prevent the loss of cognitive function.

This trial is the result of a groundbreaking collaboration between academic institutions, pharmaceutical companies and patient advocacy groups, with key support from regulatory groups, says principal investigator Randall Bateman, MD, the Charles F. and Joanne Knight Distinguished Professor in Neurology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. We are excited that this diverse portfolio of drugs and approaches will accelerate the discovery of an effective treatment for Alzheimers.

The trial will be conducted by the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimers Network Trials Unit (DIAN TU) at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The trials unit is supported by the DIAN, an NIH-funded collaboration of world-leading Alzheimers research centers; the Alzheimers Association; and the DIAN Pharma Consortium, composed of 10 pharmaceutical companies that have been advising DIAN researchers on the planning of the trial.

Alzheimers researchers have selected the investigational drugs from more than a dozen nominations submitted by the DIAN Pharma Consortium. Each drug has a unique approach to counter the toxic effects of amyloid beta, the main ingredient of brain plaques found in Alzheimers patients. Each also has passed earlier clinical trials that evaluated safety and effectiveness of the drugs and whether they engaged their targets in patients.

The investigational drugs are:

*Gantenerumab, an antibody made by Roche that binds to all forms of aggregated amyloid beta and helps remove them from the brain. Gantenerumab is currently in an international phase II/III trial known as SCarlet RoAD, started in 2010, that will test the drugs ability to stop Alzheimers prior to dementia.

*Solanezumab, a monoclonal antibody in phase III clinical trials. Discovered and developed by Eli Lilly and Company, it binds to soluble forms of amyloid beta after they are produced, allowing amyloid beta to be cleared before it clumps together to form plaques.

Also selected for potential inclusion in the trial is a beta-secretase (BACE) inhibitor, a small molecule in Phase II clinical trials that was also discovered and developed by Lilly. BACE is theorized to work by reducing the amount of amyloid beta proteins produced, slowing the accumulation of plaques.

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Drugs Chosen for Major Alzheimer's Trial