Source: Blend Images – Jose Luis Pelaez Inc / Getty
Healthy seniors at risk of Alzheimer’s are letting scientists peek into their brains to find the cause of the illness. More than 35 million people worldwide have Alzheimer’s or similar dementias, including about 5 million in the U.S.
Those numbers are expected to rise rapidly as the younger generations get older. No one knows what actually causes Alzheimer’s, but the two closest suspects are the gunky amyloid in those brain plaques or tangles of a protein named tau that clog dying brain cells.
Today’s medications only temporarily ease symptoms and attempts at new drugs have failed in recent years. New imaging can spot tangles in living brains, which will finally provide a chance to better understand Alzheimers and its origin.
The $140 million study is funded by the National Institutes of Health, Lilly & Co.’s solanezumab, and others. The A4 study which stands for Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer’s aims to enroll 1,000 healthy seniors from the Australia, Canada and the U.S. for their studies.
The goal is to check up to 500 people for tau three times over the three-year study, as researchers look for when and how it forms in those who are still healthy. At the same time, study participants will receive either an experimental anti-amyloid drug Eli Lilly & Co.’s solanezumab or a placebo as researchers track their memory.
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