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Solanezumab works by blocking formation of a protein called beta amyloid believed to cause toxic brain plaques that are considered a hallmark of Alzheimer’s, a disease recently highlighted in a series of articles in HealthWeekly by columnist Dr Mahmood Kadem Al Saeed, medical resident in Salmaniya Medical Complex with a special interest in elderly medicine.
It is a drug classified as monoclonal antibody and these types of drugs are used in multiple diseases and have been proven to be effective when it comes to conditions such as arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and osteoporosis, he explained.
Dr Mahmood remains cautious after past disappointments and looks forward to reading the latest study, although on a more optimistic note, he did add: “It is claimed that this drug not only modifies the abnormal behaviours associated with Alzheimer’s but also slows the progression. If so, then Lilley may have found the holy grail of neuroscience research.”
Eric Siemers, medical director for Lilly’s Alzheimer’s team, said if solanezumab can slow disease progression by roughly a third, as it did in the first two Phase III trials, that would be very meaningful to patients.
“In 18 months of treatment with solanezumab, patients could delay six months’ worth of progression of Alzheimer’s,” he said. “That gives you more opportunity to do things that are important to you, before you progress into later stages of the disease.”
Siemers said beta amyloid is believed to build up in the brain for 10 to 15 years and steadily kill neurons before Alzheimer’s symptoms appear.
Patients who took solanezumab from the start of earlier studies may have preserved many brain cells, he speculated, while those that began taking it later were not protected for the initial period. “They can’t get those brain cells back; they are gone forever,” he explained.
