Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive brain disorder which slowly destroys memory and thinking skills and eventually the ability to carry out simple tasks. Most people with Alzheimer's have their symptoms first appear in their mid-60s and it is the most common cause of dementia in the UK.

The cause of Alzheimer’s disease is thought to be caused by the abnormal build-up of proteins in and around brain cells. The protein amyloid forms plaques around brain cells and deposits of the protein tau form tangles in brain cells. This process of the build-up of these proteins is thought to begin many years before symptoms of Alzheimer's occur. This build-up causes neurotransmitters to decrease, for example acetylcholine.

Currently, there are no cures of Alzheimer's disease, however there are medicines which temporarily reduce symptoms. An example is lecanemab - a drug that attacks the amyloid protein that builds up in the brain’s of those with Alzheimer’s. The effect of the drug was discovered in a large-scale trial which included 1,795 volunteers with early stage Alzheimer’s who were given infusions of lecanemab every fortnight. The results of the study is that those who were infused with lecanemab had less decline on measures of cognition and function than those given the placebo drug at 18 months as stated in the New England Journal of Medicine.

However, the impact of the drug is currently being debated, as it is unclear as to what happens to the effect of the drug after 18 months of infusion. Additionally, there were risks to using the drug as brain scans showed a risk of brain bleeds and brain swelling.

Despite lecanemab being the first drug to slow the progression of early stage Alzheimer’s, this drug will not be available on the NHS as NICE states the benefits ‘are too small to justify the cost’. These costs include intensive monitoring for side effects and fortnightly trips to hospital for patients.

The NHS has stated that a dedicated team was looking at 27 other Alzheimer’s drugs currently in advanced trials that could be approved in the coming years.

Although lecanemab has seemed promising, not enough long term research has to be done to establish the efficacy and the safety of the drug in early Alzheimer’s disease and therefore the drug is not currently available on the NHS. However, the discovery of the drug has been stated to be momentous due to the advance in developing Alzheimer’s treatments, with Prof Tara Spires-Jones from the University of Edinburgh stating that results from lecanemab were “a big deal because we’ve had a 100% failure rate for a long time”.

Written by Aaliyah

Moderated by Adelene

References
Gallagher, James. “Alzheimer’s Drug Lecanemab Hailed as Momentous Breakthrough.” BBC News, BBC News, 30 Nov. 2022, www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63749586#:~:text=Lecanemab%20attacks%20the%20sticky%20gunge%20-%20called%20beta%20amyloid%20-. Accessed 16 Sept. 2024.

NHS. “Alzheimer’s Disease.” NHS, NHS, 2021, www.nhs.uk/conditions/alzheimers-disease/.
van Dyck, Christopher H., et al. “Lecanemab in Early Alzheimer’s Disease.” New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 388, no. 1, 29 Nov. 2022, pp. 9–21, www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2212948, https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmoa2212948.

Walsh, Fergus. “Lecanemab: First Drug to Slow Alzheimer’s Too Costly for NHS.” BBC News, BBC News, 22 Aug. 2024, www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c75nry66y52o.