Grampian’s existing Old Age Psychiatric Service is participating in a major clinical trial of a drug which it is hoped will have great benefits to patients clinically diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
Doctors have begun recruiting patients, who have already been referred to the Old Age Psychiatric Service, for the £1.4 million trial of the drug which is being tested for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Up to 400 patients are being recruited for the study from centres across the UK, including two NHS Grampian hospitals.
The drug in the trial has been developed by University of Aberdeen spin-out company TauRx Therapeutics Pte Ltd, which is headed by Claude Wischik, Professor of Psychiatric Geratology and Old Age Psychiatry at the University.
Professor Wischik, who has spent 20 years researching Alzheimer’s disease, said: “This trial aims to see if it is possible to dissolve the tangles of proteins in the brain that German neuropsychiatrist Alzheimer discovered. These tangles have been shown to correlate with dementia.
“Our drug is different to existing treatments for Alzheimer’s disease some of which mask the progression of the disease. We want to see if it can modify the course of the disease following promising results in laboratory tests.”
Patients referred to Grampian’s Old Age Psychiatric Service, which is aligned with all General Practices in the area, are already involved in investigation, diagnosis, treatment and continuing care relating to mental disorders and dementia. Patients with a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease may prove suitable for this clinical trial but will also benefit from additional clinical assessment and monitoring.
Consultant Psychiatrist Dr Douglas Fowlie, who is leading the clinical research in NHS Grampian with Dr Donald Mowat, said: “This is an ethically approved clinical trial for patients with probable Alzheimer’s disease. The trial is investigating a compound already licensed for use in clinical conditions. Scientific evaluation indicates clearly that it may be potentially helpful in treating Alzheimer’s disease.”
Dr Mowat, Consultant Psychiatrist, said: “We are extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to offer this trial to the patients of Grampian. The importance of this clinical trial to the future of care for patients with Alzheimer’s disease is difficult to over-estimate, but analysis of the trial results is an essential first step.”
Lead study nurse Helen Lemmon added: “The patients that will be recruited must have a clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and contact with another person who can monitor the effects of the medication.
“Patients will have a brain scan and will be assessed by their local study centre on eight occasions.”
Dementia currently affects over 750,000 people in the UK. It affects one person in 20 over the age of 65 and one person in five over the age of 80. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and in Grampian alone the care costs for dementia are £100 million per year.
In Grampian, the trial is being conducted at the Royal Cornhill Hospital in Aberdeen and the Ugie Hospital, Peterhead.
Other centres currently involved in the trial are Birmingham, Cardiff, Stoke and Bury St Edmunds, and additional centres are to be initiated in Huddersfield, London and Ipswich.
MORE BACKGROUND:
Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive condition which damages areas of the brain involved in memory, intelligence, judgment, language skills and behaviour. It accounts for 60% of the irreversible cases of dementia.
The brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease have two abnormal structures – one of those is neurofibrillary tangles which contributes directly to the dementing process and ultimately kills brain cells. This process begins some 30 years before the onset of clinical dementia and progressively accelerates over time.
These tangles occur within brain cells and are formed from abnormal deposits of a stringy protein called Tau which results in connections being destroyed within the brain.
This Tau protein abnormality was first identified by Professor Wischik and his colleagues at the University of Cambridge, 16 years ago.