New Drug For Alzheimer's

There is good news regarding the world's fight against Alzheimer's and dementia. The US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly announced promising results of its experimental drug Donanemab, which has been shown to slow cognitive decline in Alzheimer's patients. It said on May 3, 2023 that those with mild Alzheimer's in its 1,736-person clinical trial "showed 35% less clinical decline than those who received a placebo." The results are similar to those of Lecanemab, a drug made by the US company Biogen and the Japanese company Eisai, which was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in January 2023. Donanemabtargetstheamyloid protein, which is believed to cause dementia by accumulating in the brain and damaging neurons. The trial results strongly prove that amyloid is a key driver of Alzheimer's disease. Scientists have described the results as "transformative in an enormously important way from a scientific point of view".

Alzheimer's is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60-70% of cases of dementia. Dementia is a term for several disorders that affect memory, thinking, and the ability to perform daily activities. More than 5.5 crore people have dementia worldwide, with over 60% of them living in low-income and middle-income countries. Every year, there are nearly one crore new cases. The experimental drug is just one of the many scientific breakthroughs that offer hope in the fight against Alzheimer's and dementia in 2023. New gene therapy for Alzheimer's has been found to significantly lower the levels of the tau proteins that are thought to cause the disease. Another study has found that taking Vitamin D tablets may help stave off dementia in older people. Eating a Mediterranean diet, rich in whole grains, nuts, fish, vegetables and fruits, can substantially reduce the risk of dementia.