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WEDNESDAY, July 30 (HealthDay News)-- New reports on very different approaches to treating Alzheimer's disease could one day lead to better therapies for the mind-robbing condition, experts say.
A trio of studies that were presented Wednesday at the Alzheimer's Association 2008 International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease in Chicago noted progress made on three different treatment fronts.
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The first involves a drug called Dimebon, with positive results being reported from tests in Russia. Dimebon is an antihistamine, and data from the Russian trials indicated that Dimebon might have value in treating Alzheimer's.
This buttressed American research reported earlier this year that showed improvements in Alzheimer's patients given Dimebon in a controlled study. The drug is believed to prevent the death of brain cells.
Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, studied 183 people who had mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease. Mental function remained stable in those taking the drug, while it declined in those given a placebo. Mental function also stabilized in people who were first given a placebo after they began taking Dimebon.
Another trial used the body's immune system to prevent the mental deterioration suffered by people with Alzheimer's disease. The immune attack is aimed at the deposits of beta-amyloid protein that accumulate in the brains of patients.
"The idea has been around for almost a decade now," Nixon. "The initial notion was to use the vaccine approach to prevent amyloid deposition, injecting amyloid so the body would attack the deposits. Now we are into phase two, injecting the antibody itself."
Researchers at Eli Lilly & Co. reported on 52 people with mild to moderate Alzheimer's. Some were given weekly injections of a monoclonal antibody that binds to beta amyloid, while others were injected with a placebo.
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