amyloid-beta

On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration made a decision that’s likely to have a major impact on the landscape of Alzheimer’s disease research. The agency issued a full-throated traditional approval of the drug Leqembi, developed by the companies Eisai and Biogen. The drug is the first of its class to receive such approval and is intended to slow down the progression of the neurodegenerative disease.Will We See More of Uhura's Relationship with Spock? | io9 InterviewLeqembi is one of several antibody-based drugs that…

New clinical trial data released by Eli Lilly on Wednesday has provided the most promising results of any potential Alzheimer’s disease treatment yet. In a randomized, double-blinded, controlled phase III trial, the experimental drug donanemab significantly slowed cognitive decline in patients compared to placebo, with nearly half of those on the drug experiencing no decline at all a year later. The findings will likely pave the way for approval by the Food and Drug Administration, though the drug appears to carry a risk…

Image: Shutterstock (Shutterstock)The Food and Drug Administration on Friday granted the conditional approval of a new treatment for people with early Alzheimer’s disease: the antibody-based drug lecanemab, jointly developed by the pharmaceutical companies Biogen and Eisai. In a large trial, lecanemab appeared to slow down patients’ cognitive decline relative to those on placebo. But some experts and consumer advocates have questioned the drug’s safety and real-world value.Lecanemab works by targeting amyloid beta, a…

Image: Shutterstock (Shutterstock)An experimental treatment for Alzheimer’s disease may pose a life-threatening risk of brain bleeding for certain patients, an investigative report out this week suggests. The paper, published Monday in the journal Science, details the case of a 65-year-old woman who died from massive hemorrhaging that could have arisen from taking a common blood thinner while on the experimental drug. The incident is believed to be the second similar death linked to the treatment, which will be reviewed…

Image: Shutterstock (Shutterstock)An experimental drug for Alzheimer’s disease appears to have shown successful results in a major large-scale clinical trial. The drug’s makers announced Tuesday that their treatment slowed down people’s rate of cognitive decline in a Phase III trial. The findings will likely pave the way for the drug’s approval in the U.S. and elsewhere, but there are still important questions left unanswered about its practical benefits to Alzheimer’s patients.The treatment is known as lecanemab, and…

Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia; if we are to alleviate its impact, we need to understand as much as possible about how it gets started and the effects it has on brain cells – and a new study reveals that the development of the disease can cause cells to seriously overheat.  We know that Alzheimer's is characterized by the proteins amyloid-beta and tau clumping together in the brain, killing off cells and causing the brain to shrink. The new study shows how amyloid-beta can destroy a cell "like…