Arthritis drug may slow Alzheimer’s progression

A commonly-prescribed arthritis drug – etanercept – could delay the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, says a small study presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Denmark.
A total of 41 people were given either etanercept or a placebo every week for six months by a team from the University of Southampton.
Assessments of memory function, efficiency of day-to-day activities and behaviour showed that those receiving etanercept did not noticeably deteriorate during the six-month follow-up compared to those taking the placebo, who showed a clear decline.
Etanercept blocks the effects of a protein in the blood called TNF-alpha, which is released by blood cells as part of the body’s immune response to foreign agents. Previous research has shown that people with Alzheimer’s who have high levels of active TNF-alpha in their blood generally have worse prognoses than those with low levels.
So a large number of anti-inflammatory approaches have been tried in people with established Alzheimer’s, but until now none have seemed very effective.
“Our results are better than we expected,” says Prof Clive Holmes, who led the work. “We have shown that using etanercept in patients who have Alzheimer’s disease would be safe and has positive outcomes after six months. However, this is a small study and should now be tested in a larger clinical trial.”
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