Alzheimer's Drug Shows Early Promise (HealthDay)

FRIDAY, June 27 (HealthDay News) -- Long-anticipated results froma trial on an experimental Alzheimer's therapy look promising, at least ina certain group of patients.

Findings that are slated to be presented Sunday at the InternationalConference on Alzheimer's Disease in Chicago suggest that while the drug,bapineuzumab, showed only a modest trend towards a benefit in patientswith the ApoE4 gene, there were more notable improvements in the degree ofcognitive decline in individuals lacking the gene.

Patients who lack the ApoE4 gene have a predisposition to developingAlzheimer's, especially earlier in life.

"This is the first study of adequate size and duration that suggeststhe immunotherapy beta-amyloid model works," said Dr. Anton Porsteinsson,an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Rochester Schoolof Medicine who was one of the investigators for the study. "Immunotherapyis a huge front in the development of treatments."

Many experts are hoping the results will usher in a new era inAlzheimer's treatment and research. "If it had failed, it would havesignificant reverberations," Porsteinsson. "It allows this and multipleother studies to move forward. It's a big relief, but it also turns intoconsiderable excitement."

"The recently announced bapineuzumab results were encouraging enough tokeep moving forward, but yet not definitive enough to be certain of anyeffect," added Dr. Sam Gandy, chairman of the Alzheimer's AssociationNational Medical and Scientific Advisory Council and an Alzheimer's expertwith Mount Sinai in New York City. " The best care for any Alzheimer'spatient is in the setting of a clinical trial, if possible, withbapineuzumab or any of a number of agents. Our most promising drugs are intrials and not yet approved."

Gandy serves as a safety monitor on another Wyeth/Elan vaccine trial.Wyeth and Elan also sponsored the current trial.

Immunotherapy, an emerging frontier for a variety of differentdiseases, involves stimulating the body's own immune system to fightvarious conditions, including cancer.

Porsteinsson estimated that some one-half to two-thirds of the researchpush in Alzheimer's is aimed at amyloid therapy and especiallyimmunotherapy.

Bapineuzumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody which binds to andmight be able to eliminate beta amyloid peptide, which accumulate asplaques in the brains of people with Alzheimer's. The drug deliversantibodies to beta amyloid.

Most experts in the field of Alzheimer's believe that the build-up ofbeta-amyloid proteins in the brain are responsible for the disease.

But clinical gains in the area of Alzheimer's, not to mentionadvancement in a basic understanding of the disease, have been hard tocome by.

This phase 2 trial involved both men and women with mild to moderateAlzheimer's at more than 30 sites in the United States, Finland and theUnited Kingdom. All participants received bapineuzumab.

Researchers noted statistically significant improvements in patientswithout the ApoE4 gene. The therapy did not appear to have a statisticallysignificant benefit in patients with the gene, although there was somebenefit.

A large, phase 3 study is currently underway, although even if all goeswell, the drug could take almost four years to reach the market,Porsteinsson said.

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