Lecanemab, an experimental Alzheimer’s drug from Eisai and Biogen, slowed cognitive decline in a rigorous study but may carry the risk of serious side effects for some patients, according to data presented on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

Side effects of the drug Lecanemab

The experimental drug Lecanemab was linked to a dangerous type of brain swelling in nearly 13 percent of patients in an 18-month study of nearly 1,800 participants with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease, Reuters reported.

Some patients also had brain bleeds, with five having macrobleeds and 14% microbleeds, a symptom linked to two deaths in people who received the drug in a later study.

The first drug to slow Alzheimer’s disease

The first drug that slows the destruction of the brain in Alzheimer’s disease – Lecanemab – has been declared a historic and important success, the BBC reports, citing news.ro.

Clinical trials have ended decades of failure and shown that a new era of drugs to treat Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, is possible.

However, the drug Lecanemab has only a small effect, and its impact on people’s daily lives is debated. In addition, the drug works in the early stages of the disease.

Lecanemab attacks a sticky fat called beta-amyloid that builds up in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease.

A turning point with “important” results

For a medical field fraught with failure, despair and disappointment, some see these test results as a triumphant turning point.

Alzheimer’s Research UK called the findings “significant”.

One of the world’s leading researchers who proposed the idea of ​​targeting amyloid 30 years ago, Professor John Hardy, said it was a “historic” result and that he was optimistic: “We are witnessing the beginning of a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.”

How the drug Lekanemab works

Professor Tara Spears-Jones of the University of Edinburgh said the results were “an important thing because for a long time we had a 100% failure rate”.

People with Alzheimer’s disease are now prescribed other drugs to help manage their symptoms, but none of them change the course of the disease.

Lecanemab is an antibody, similar to those the body makes to attack viruses or bacteria, designed to tell the immune system to remove amyloid from the brain.

Amyloid is a protein that accumulates in the spaces between neurons in the brain and forms the characteristic plaques that are one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease.

The drug is being evaluated in the United States

This large-scale study involved 1,795 volunteers with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. Infusions of lecanemab were performed every two weeks.

The findings, presented at the Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials Conference in San Francisco and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, are not a miracle cure.

The disease continued to rob people of brain power, but this decline slowed by about a quarter during 18 months of treatment.

The data is already being evaluated by US regulators, who will soon decide whether Lecanemab can be approved for wider use.

Its developers – pharmaceutical companies Eisai and Biogen – plan to start the approval process in other countries next year.