Alzheimer trial yields positive results

[Demeter]

Source: FT.Com

By Clive Cookson, Science Editor

Published: April 14 2009 01:19 | Last updated: April 14 2009 01:19

A potential treatment for Alzheimer’s, which is designed to tackle the underlying causes of disease, has given promising results in its first clinical trial.

Scientists at University College London gave a new drug called CPHPC to five patients for three months. They found that it removed a blood protein called SAP, which is believed to be involved in the formation of damaging “plaques” in the brain of Alzheimer’s patients.

The treatment caused no side-effects and the patients showed no clinical deterioration during the trial, though it did not last long enough for the researchers to assess clinical benefits. The details are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Mark Pepys, a UCL professor of medicine who has been working for more than 20 years on SAP as a therapeutic target in Alzheimer’s, now plans a larger trial. Eighty to 100 patients would receive either CPHPC or a placebo pill over several months.

Read more: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a2cd7a1a-251e-11de-8a66-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss