How Far We’ve Come in Alzheimer’s Research
A worldwide quest is under way to find new treatments to stop, slow or even prevent Alzheimer’s. Because new drugs take years to produce from concept to market””and because drugs that seem promising in early-stage studies may not work as hoped in large-scale trials””it is critical that Alzheimer’s and related dementias research continue to accelerate.
Currently, there are five FDA-approved Alzheimer’s drugs that treat the symptoms of Alzheimer’s “” temporarily helping memory and thinking problems in about half of the people who take them. But these medications do not treat the underlying causes of Alzheimer’s.
In contrast, many of the new drugs in development aim to modify the disease process itself, by impacting one or more of the many wide-ranging brain changes that Alzheimer’s causes. These changes offer potential “targets” for new drugs to stop or slow the progress of the disease. Many researchers believe successful treatment will eventually involve a “cocktail” of medications aimed at several targets, similar to current state-of-the-art treatments for many cancers and AIDS.
In this video, past and present members of the Alzheimer’s Association Medical and Scientific Advisory Council explore the progress we’ve made since Dr. Alois Alzheimer first described the disease more than a century ago.
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