Medicines against forgetfulness

Of all the drugs that have been tested against the progression of Alzheimer’s dementia, not a single one has made it into clinical routine. More than 100 drugs for Alzheimer’s dementia are currently in clinical trials, i.e. they are being tested on humans. Approximately 30 of these studies have already reached Phase III. In this phase, they have to prove their effectiveness against the malicious disease. If successful, the active ingredients can be approved as drugs. Many years, even decades of research and development have already gone into the active ingredients up to this point. “Unfortunately, Alzheimer’s research is like a super tanker that moves very slowly,” confirms Prof. Willbold and adds, “The principle that it is not about the formation of amyloid beta itself, but about its aggregation into oligomers, has already been known for several years, but the translation of these results into clinical application will still take years.”

This is why most of the compounds or antibodies in Phase III, some of which were developed decades ago, are directed against amyloid beta plaques only. Some of them also recognise amyloid beta oligomers. Other drugs are aimed at stimulating the brain’s metabolism by influencing the release of messenger substances or the growth of nerve cells. Only a small fraction of the drugs that are currently being tested is aimed at aggregates of the modified tau protein found in nerve cells.