Research Update: The Challenges of Treating Dementia

With 46.8 million people currently living with dementia and the world’s aging population, there is an urgent need for a treatment to prevent or cure dementia. However, finding a cure for neurodegenerative diseases is very challenging, because these illnesses are hard to diagnose due to the gradual and slow progression of symptoms, as well as the fact that dementia is a complex health problem that can stem from over 50 underlying causes.

Today, most research about potential drug treatments target Alzheimer’s disease, which is the most common form of dementia, accounting for 60 – 70% of all cases. In spite of the high prevalence of Alzheimer’s, we still don’t know enough about the disease’s underlying biology to develop a successful treatment. For instance, it is unknown why the progression of the disease varies between people, or what regulates the toxic build-up of beta-amyloid plaques and tau tangles responsible for Alzheimer’s in the brain. Moreover, patients may have Alzheimer’s disease in addition to other forms of dementia too. Secondly, the blood-brain barrier prevents drugs from reaching the brain through the bloodstream.

Due to these obstacles, some research and clinical trials involving potential dementia drugs have had disappointing results and thus, several companies have stepped away from dementia research. Most recently, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced at the beginning of January that it will stop Alzheimer’s research, after costly failed attempts to develop a drug treatment over the past decade.

Nevertheless, there seems to be steps in the right direction for dementia research, as other pharmaceutical companies have continued to test new drugs with modest but promising results. New treatments are targeting the underlying biology of dementia to slow or reverse the disease progression itself. One such approach is called immunotherapy, where antibodies are created to bind to abnormal proteins in the brain – such as the beta-amyloid plaques or tau tangles. These antibodies then expose these abnormal proteins for the body to destroy them.

Non-drug therapies are also being actively investigated – including exercise, focused ultrasound, electrical and magnetic brain stimulation techniques, and cognitive remediation. These techniques, with and without drug therapy, may eventually be shown to be effective at significantly delaying the onset of the disease. Although these may not be “cures”, delaying the onset of Alzheimer’s disease by 5 years can lower the prevalence of the illness by almost 50%.

While it is no easy task to develop a cure for dementia, all dementia research and clinical trials will contribute to our current knowledge of the disease, allowing scientists to create and test new drugs. With perseverance and continued investment in research, we can restore some of what dementia takes away.  

For more information on the challenges and current progress of dementia research, visit https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/18/health/dementia-alzheimers-drug-treatment-partner/index.html