Pfizer Inc. and Medivation Inc. studying a 27-year-old hay fever treatment for patients of Alzheimer’s disease, say it is possible it may also help those with Huntington’s.
According to research published in the Archives of Neurology today, the drug Dimebon is said to improve mental functioning and awareness in patients with Huntington’s, a degenerative neurological disorder running in families.
Karl Kieburtz, lead author of the study says, since there are no treatments for the psychological effects of Huntington’s affecting 25,000 people in North America, these findings are immensely encouraging and offer hope. Typically, beginning in middle age, symptoms of Huntington’s include muscle twitching, aggression, depression, orientation and memory loss.
The drug will be studied in a larger, long-term study to find out whether the benefits are due to the drug’s efficacy or simply due to chance.
However, because of Dimebon’s effect on mitochondria i. e. parts of cells that convert food into energy, improving cell function and helping them withstand stress, scientists believe it may help patients of Huntington’s disease, as well as those with Alzheimer’s.
For the study, 91 patients taking either Dimebon or a placebo for three months were evaluated, and it was found those taking Dimebon seemed more likely to give the correct answer to questions about what year it was, where they were, while counting backward and recalling words over a brief period of time.
No impact of the drug was found on a broader assessment measuring motor function, cognition and behaviour, nor was any benefit noticed while measuring cognition in Huntington’s patients taking the test developed for patients of Alzheimer’s disease.
San Franscisco-based Medivation and Pfizer in New York, as part of the third and final stage of testing required to get U. S. regulatory approval for Dimebon are working on a six month study involving 350 Huntington’s patients.
An experimental drug called latrepirdine used since 1983 to treat hay fever in the former Soviet Union, but not any more, was acquired by Medivation and Pfizer, who purchased the rights to the drug, after Russian researchers screening compounds for potential effects on the brain found it appeared to stabilize mitochondria, the power source of brain and other cells.
The results of the larger Phase 3 trial now under way are expected later this year.
http://www.dimebonalzheimers.com
