Expert suggests cautious optimism on new Alzheimer's pill

A once-a-day pill which could potentially cure Alzheimer's disease would be a "major breakthrough" if it works in human clinical trials, the Malta Dementia Society's general secretary, Charles Scerri, said. However, he urged people not to raise hopes too much. Human trials are only due to start next month to be followed by a major international trial next year.

Scientists from Australia's Mental Health Research Institute said the drug, PBT2, prevented the build-up of a protein linked to the disease when it was tested on mice. In fact, they said, the protein levels dropped by 60 per cent within 24 hours of a single dose and memory performance improved within five days. They believe the drug could potentially delay the onset of the disease or slow down its progression.

Alzheimer's disease - discovered by German neurologist Alois Alzheimer a century ago - is the most common form of dementia and is characterised by impaired memory, thought, speech and, finally, complete helplessness.

Dr Scerri, a scientist at the university's Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics Department, said a number of drugs that had worked on animals caused side effects in humans, making them unusable. The problem, he said, was that only humans suffered from Alzheimer's and while a similar brain disorder could be induced in mice, no animal was a pure model for the disease.

"If this chemical does work on humans it would be a major breakthrough, one of the biggest in the study of Alzheimer's. However, people should not raise their hopes too much; this is still far off," he said.

The researchers said preliminary tests in humans have shown that the drug does not cause any major side-effects.

The way the brain functions is still relatively shrouded in mystery, something which makes it more difficult to determine what is causing problems. But Dr Scerri said researchers were starting to understand what goes on in the brain and how it works. Research has registered big advances over the past decade.

Alzheimer's disease is a progressive and fatal brain disease related to age and Dr Scerri said that while about 1.4 per cent of people aged 65 suffer from this debilitating condition, the incidence goes up to 47 per cent in over 85-year-olds. He described it as a completely debilitating disease and life expectancy on diagnosis is about eight to 10 years.

"Although the first changes are subtle, it gets worse and worse."

Dr Scerri explained that the way Alzheimer's patients start forgetting things is different from normal forgetting patterns.

"They start not recognising their loved ones and there have been cases of women trying to attack their husband because they think he is an intruder," he said. They even start to forget words, making speech difficult. As time goes on, their confusion grows, and while they suffer, so do their caregivers. Indeed, Dr Scerri said, an estimated 60 per cent of caregivers end up suffering from depression.

The Malta Dementia Society was set up two years ago with the aim of increasing awareness. It has about 100 members, most of whom are caregivers. It is estimated that about 4,000 Maltese - one per cent of the population - suffer from dementia.