Game-Changing New Alzheimer's Drug Shows Promise

A new drug that could stop Alzheimer's disease from ever developing in people is showing "tantalising" promise, scientists say.

The breakthrough has been hailed as a "game-changer" in the fight against Alzheimer's and the "best news" in dementia research for 25 years.

However, experts are remaining cautious as the drug, aducanumab, is still in the early stages of development.

Nevertheless, it produced "unprecedented" results in a clinical trial, the findings of which were recently published in the journal Nature.

During the trial, patients who were given the highest dose of aducanumab experienced an almost complete clearance of the characteristic protein plaques, known as amyloid plaques, which cause dementia.

A new phase of research will now involve two separate studies, with early-stage Alzheimer's patients from North America, Europe and Asia, to fully test the drug's effects.

If further trials show aducanumab to be effective and safe, we could see the first dementia prevention drug made available within just a few years.

Dr David Reynolds, chief scientific officer at Alzheimer's Research UK, said: "These results provide tantalising evidence that a new class of drug to treat the disease may be on the horizon."

At present, it is thought that there are 850,000 people living with Alzheimer's in Britain alone, and this number is expected to rise to one million by 2025.