According to a study published in the journal NeuroImage: Clinical this week, researchers at the John Hopkins University have found a novel therapeutic approach for an existing drug that reverses a condition in elderly patients who are at high risk for dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease. These findings validate the team’s initial conclusions from three years ago that was published in the journal Neuron.
The team studied 84 subjects; 17 of them were normal healthy participants and the rest had the symptoms of pre-dementia memory loss defined as aMCI. Everyone was over 55 years old, with an average age of about 70.
The subjects were given varying doses of the drug and also a placebo in a double-blind randomized trial. Researchers found low doses both improved memory performance and normalized the over-activity detected by functional magnetic resonance imaging that measures brain activity during a memory task. The ideal dosing found in this clinical study matched earlier preclinical studies in animal models.
The aim of the team’s study now is to discover whether treatment over a longer time will prevent further cognitive decline and delay or stop progression to Alzheimer’s dementia.
