A recent study published in the journal neurology Thrown away The Alzheimer’s drug lecanimab, experimentally approved in the United States, reduced the brain size of treated patients by 28% compared to those who received an alternative treatment.
Alzheimer’s is a degenerative brain disease that affects memory, thinking, comprehension, language and the ability to perform daily activities and causes cognitive impairment in patients. Research estimates that 57 million people worldwide were suffering from some form of dementia in 2019, most of them caused by Alzheimer’s disease, and that it could affect as many as 150 million people by 2050.
A scientific review published a few days ago in the journal Neurology warned that Alzheimer’s treatments are causing a decrease in brain volume. So far, in trials conducted by the Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai and the American Biogen, The “promising” drug lecanumab was able to reduce patients’ cognitive decline by 27% compared to other alternative treatments, For this reason, in January of this year, lecanimab was experimentally approved in the United States.
It is a high affinity humanized monoclonal antibody that is administered Intravenous infusion every two weeks over a period of 18 months, with the goal of removing amyloid beta protein from the brain.
However, the study by scientists Francesca Alves, Paweł Kalinowski and Scott Eton of the Flory Institute of Neoscience and Mental Health at the University of Melbourne in Australia. noted that patients who took lecanimab had 28 percent more brain shrinkage than those treated with a placebo.
The article’s authors conducted a meta-analysis of 31 clinical studies of anti-amyloid Alzheimer’s drugs, including lecanamib. The analysis found that there was a greater loss of cortical volume with those taking the drug lecanimab than those taking the placebo.
“It is possible that accelerated brain atrophy is due to other factors, but when considering the possibility of brain damage, we must be cautious in our interpretations and accumulate more data,” Eaton said on Twitter. “We recommend that doctors alert patients to the risk of brain atrophy, that brain atrophy be actively monitored in clinical trials (including long-term follow-up), and that drug companies running the trials publishes more information about changes in quantity.” He added.
Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical company said through a statement that, although participants in its trial “experienced a greater loss of cortical volume with leucanumab compared to placebo, these reductions were associated with the removal of amyloid beta protein from the brain and inflammation.” can be caused by neutralizing antibodies. In that sense, The scientists acknowledge that more study is needed to determine whether brain shrinkage is a common side effect of drugs that remove amyloid-beta protein deposits.
