select search filters
briefings
roundups & rapid reactions
before the headlines
Fiona fox's blog
A conference abstract at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference looks at weight loss drug liraglutide and Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr Richard Oakley, Associate Director of Research and Innovation at Alzheimer’s Society, said:
“Research will beat dementia and drugs licensed for other conditions now make up 32% of the drugs in trials for Alzheimer’s disease around the world. This could save years and billions of pounds as repurposed drugs have already been shown to be safe and approved for use, so we only have to show the effect they have on Alzheimer’s disease.
“Alzheimer’s Society proudly funded the expansion of this trial from just 22 people to over 200 people with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. We’re encouraged by the positive indications from this study that liraglutide may impact memory and thinking skills and potentially protect against brain shrinkage.
“Larger clinical trials are currently testing other compounds from this family of drugs and we look forward to seeing the results.
“More people receiving an early and accurate diagnosis is going to be vital in the future for identifying people who are most likely to benefit from new Alzheimer’s treatments, which are now finally within reach.”
Dr Sheona Scales, Director of Research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said:
“Around one million people in the UK are living with dementia, and it remains the only health condition in the top ten leading causes of death in the UK for which there are no treatments to slow, stop or prevent it. People with dementia desperately need treatments targeting the different aspects of the condition if we are to continue progress towards a cure.
“But developing drugs for diseases like Alzheimer’s is costly and can take many years. Being able to repurpose drugs already licensed for other health conditions could help accelerate progress and open up new avenues to prevent or treat dementia-causing diseases, such as Alzheimer’s.
“This new research shows that people with early-stage Alzheimer’s taking liraglutide had a slower decline in memory and thinking, and less brain shrinkage, over 12 months, compared to placebo. However – the study was carried out in a small group of people. Larger trials are now happening to see whether drugs like liraglutide are effective at slowing down the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. What remains unknown is the ‘how’, and more research into the mechanism behind liraglutide and its protective effect against dementia is needed.”
Prof Tara Spires-Jones, FMedSci President of the British Neuroscience Association, Group Leader at the UK Dementia Research Institute, and Director of the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh Said:
“These data testing whether a GLP-1 agonist drug can help people with mild Alzheimer’s disease are promising. There are clear links from strong data in the field between vascular risk factors including diabetes and obesity being associated with increased risk of dementia. The GLP-1 drug should help reduce these risk factors as well as potentially directly protecting brain cells. However, it is important to note that the reported data are from a relatively early stage trial and more research in bigger trials is needed to confirm whether this type of treatment will be effective in people with Alzheimer’s disease.”
Prof Stephen Evans, Emeritus Professor, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said:
“It is hard to make sensible critiques on only an abstract and press release, without the full details of the results. The repurposing of drugs is an important avenue of research but there is a lot of uncertainty here. The 50% brain volume change may not translate to important cognitive effects, and reporting only on those who completed the full 52 weeks of treatment could bring bias into the results. It sounds like it is worth pursuing a larger trial, but these results cannot demonstrate that liraglutide can protect against dementia .”
The abstract ‘Evaluation of Novel GLP-1 analogue in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease’ by Paul Edison et al. was presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference. It was embargoed until 12:00 noon UK time Tuesday 30 July.
Conference contact:
Niles Frantz, Director, News Media Engagement, Alzheimer’s Association
Phone: 312-363-8782 / Office: 312-786-4592 / nfrantz@alz.org
Declared interests
Dr Richard Oakley: Alzheimer’s Society’s funding helped to expand this liraglutide trial from just 22 to over 200 people with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease.
Prof Tara Spires-Jones: No COI
Prof Stephen Evans: No COI
No others received.