Ongoing Trial Seeks to Avert Alzheimer’s Decades

Ongoing Trial Seeks to Avert Alzheimer’s Decades Before it Strikes

An ongoing clinical trial aims to test a drug that is hoped to avert Alzheimer’s disease decades before it is expected to manifest in an individual. This study is being conducted by a team at the School of Medicine at Washington University.

The drug in question, remternetug, was formulated by Eli Lilly and is intended to clear plaque from the brains of young people that have been found to have a genetic predisposition to developing Alzheimer’s disease. The study subjects are young people, some of them 18 years old, expected to develop the disease early (from their 30s onwards).

In mid 2024, Eli Lilly obtained approval from the FDA for a similar drug called donanemab for the treatment of early onset Alzheimer’s disease. The current drug being tested is intended to be an improvement upon or even replace this approved version. While approximately 25 years will be required to confirm the efficacy of remternetug and others like it, about 4-10 years will suffice for the ongoing trial to yield valuable insights into the impact of the drug on some mechanisms through which Alzheimer’s develops and progresses.

Remternetug targets the misfolded amyloid beta protein. This protein forms clumps (plaques) in the brain. Existing drugs targeting this protein only yield modest effects. Existing research shows the accumulation of these plaques starts close to two decades before Alzheimer’s symptoms manifest, and the current thinking is that if anti-amyloid beta medicines are administered much earlier, those at risk stand a better chance of having the onset of this condition averted or at least delayed.

In this clinical trial, 240 subjects are to be recruited. They are to be selected from families in which one of three genetic mutations known to result in early-onset Alzheimer’s is present. Relatives (without the mutations of concern) to these selected participants will serve as controls during the study. The selected subjects must meet the criteria of being less than 25 years away from the time when the early onset of this disease is expected in individuals having those mutations.

For 2 years, subjects will get either a placebo or the drug every 3 months. After this duration, participants will be at liberty to continue receiving the drug or stop at the doses given during the two years. In 4-5 years, data from the placebo-controlled trial will be out and complete study results are expected in 2034. Subjects will be monitored throughout this period.

It is hoped that the findings could improve the scientific community’s understanding of classical and early onset Alzheimer’s. Future efforts by companies like Annovis Bio Inc. (NYSE: ANVS) to develop next-generation medications for Alzheimer’s could also benefit from this growing body of knowledge.

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