A neurologist explains the benefits and risks of new drugs to delay Alzheimer’s disease

New experimental drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease It can delay the worsening of the disease for four to seven months. The drug, called donanimab, is being developed by Pharmacist Eli Lilly, which has already sought approval from the US Federal Drug Agency (FDA). according to one The study was released on Monday. However, there are significant side effects.

It’s another drug being tested in Alzheimer’s disease, the neurologist explained.

“It’s a drug with an innovative way of working in some ways, and it’s been tested for some time, that it can bind to abnormal proteins in the brain and promote their removal. It’s thought that removing these proteins will then lead to clinical improvement and that’s how the drug works.”

Medicine for any stages of the disease?

These drugs are being developed for a stage where it is believed that the benefit will be greatest, which is the early stages of the disease.

“We’re talking about people who are slightly affected by the disease, but who already have some changes resulting from it, and so, those are the patients who would be expected to benefit from this new class of medication. It’s not intended for patients with already established dementia in, say, more advanced stages of the disease in which there is already thought to be significant neurological damage.”

What are the side effects?

The neurologist states that there are risks associated with this medication and patients receiving it should be continually monitored.

“In this class of drugs, the problem of cerebral edema, that is, the accumulation of fluid in the brain, which may or may not have some kind of accompanying symptoms. As well as aspects related to intracerebral hemorrhage.

“These are important adverse effects that need some kind of monitoring. For this reason, in patients who may eventually be indicated for this type of treatment, we have to do some kind of pre-assessment with brain MRI, with a very detailed analysis of some of the MRI parameters and thereafter, not only initially, but also in terms of progression.”

What is Alzheimer’s disease and what are its effects?

There are two phenomena that are considered essential in the development of the symptoms that we attribute to the disease:

“In the development of Alzheimer’s disease in the brain, on the one hand, there is a deposition of abnormal proteins (…) that are toxic to neurons that lead to the destruction of neurons that translates into a loss of volume, which is commonly called cerebral atrophy, which can be seen on some types of imaging tests.”

This medicine has not yet been marketed.

“You would have to follow the normal procedures in this kind of circumstance: approval in the US and then finally analyzed by European agencies and only much later.” [chegará] From Portugal. But it remains to be seen if it will actually be approved.”