‘Dementia link to sudden low blood pressure and dizziness’
October 13, 2024
A POTENTIAL Alzheimer’s treatment that triggers the creation of new brain cells is to be tested on people.
The drug, allopregnanolone, has already been shown to improve mental functioning in animals.
A small number of patients with mild cognitive impairment and mild Alzheimer’s disease have volunteered to try the treatment for 12 weeks.
The primary aim of the trial taking place in the US will be to check the ability of humans to tolerate the drug and to establish a safe dose.
It will also assess the short-term effects of allopregnanolone on mental performance and on the markers of Alzheimer’s in the brain.
Details of the trial, to be led by Dr Roberta Brinton from the University of Southern California, were presented yesterday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Boston, US.
Dr Doug Brown of the UK Alzheimer’s Society said: “Cell regeneration may sound like the plot of a sci-fi film but the hope here is that it could one day form the real life basis for valuable Alzheimer’s treatments.
“We are still a long way from knowing whether this will actually happen. However, establishing whether, and in what doses, it is safe for people to take this compound, is an important stepping stone.”
Source The Herald