The result of a clinical study showed that an investigational drug for Alzheimer’s dementia developed by Tau Rx Therapeutics, a Scottish pharmaceutical company, is effective in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early dementia, which are the pre-dementia stages. .
This new candidate for the treatment of dementia is hydromethylthionine mesylate (HMTM), which inhibits the aggregation of the tau protein in brain neurons, reported 15.
Alzheimer’s disease is known to occur because amyloid-beta, a surface protein in the space between nerve cells, and the tau protein, within nerve cells, are misfolded, clumped or tangled and fail to perform their functions.
The phase 3 clinical study was conducted in 105 patients with MCI and 147 patients with mild to moderate dementia.
16 mg of HMTM was administered orally each day.
Study participants were limited to patients who tested positive for beta amyloid on positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, and standard drug treatment for symptom relief was discontinued during the study.
Consequently, in the MCI group administered with HMTM, cognitive function was steadily improved and brain atrophy was restored to a level similar to that of normal brain.
In patients with mild to moderate dementia treated with HMTM, the rate of brain atrophy decreased with stabilization of cognitive function.
Brain atrophy refers to progression in the entire brain or in a locally restricted area and a decrease in the function of that area appears.
According to the research team, the same results were obtained in two previous phase 3 clinical trials.
The research team pointed out that HMTM is the first new investigational drug for dementia that shows steady improvement in cognitive function in the pre-dementia stage and stabilization of progression in mild to moderate dementia.
This suggests that treatment is possible at a very early stage before the onset of cognitive decline to the extent that independence is difficult, the research team said.
The overall results suggest that aberrant tau protein is a viable first target for dementia treatment, the team points out.
Until the funds, another abnormal protein, amyloid-beta in nerve cells, had been indicated as the cause of dementia, but now the abnormal tau protein is recognized as an important target for dementia treatment, he explained. the research team.
No serious side effects have been observed in clinical studies.
Taurex plans to seek HMTM approval from relevant agencies in the US, UK and Canada next year.
The results of this clinical trial will be presented at the Clinical Trials in Alzheimer’s Disease (CTAD) conference held in San Francisco, USA on November 30th.
Taurex Therapeutics was founded by Professor Claude Wischick, a psychiatrist at Aberdeen University College of Medicine, Scotland, who has been researching Alzheimer’s dementia for 40 years.
Taurex Inc. continued research on therapies that focus on the abnormal tau protein.
The results of the clinical trial were published in the latest issue of the Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease.
/ yunhap news
