CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

UNT Health Science Center starting 'novel' clinical drug trials for Alzheimer's

Fort Worth Star-Telegram (TX) - 3/31/2015

March 31--FORT WORTH -- As a child, Ellen Brown witnessed the devastating effects of Alzheimer's disease on her grandmother. So decades later, when her own mother began repeating stories and forgetting day-to-day tasks, Brown started to seriously worry.

With a family history of the debilitating brain disease, including a cousin with early onset Alzheimer's, Brown pushed for her mom to see a doctor. Eventually, she did, and Brown's fears were confirmed.

"I know there is a huge likelihood of it coming on down to me. My mom used to tell me when she was my Mimi's caregiver, 'I don't want you to go through this,'" Brown said. "But I am."

The Food and Drug Administration has approved only five medications to treat symptoms of the disease. But researchers at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth have teamed up with a handful of drug companies to change that.

"Without clinical trials, there will be no new drugs. There have been no new drugs that have hit the market for Alzheimer's patients in over a decade," said Sid O'Bryant, interim director of the center's Institute of Aging and Alzheimer'sDisease Research. "That is a problem."

UNT Health Science Center is seeking patients in the Fort Worth area who have been diagnosed with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease to enroll in three 12-month clinical trials. Participants, who will be compensated, must be able to travel to the clinic with a caregiver. Additional clinical trials are anticipated.

"The trials that are all now starting are very novel. They are testing new drugs and new approaches compared to the things that have been tried before," O'Bryant said. "They are all exciting opportunities for patients."

For now, Brown said her mom, Sue Smith, still enjoys reading, can feed herself on her own and uses a walker with some help to get around the James L. West Alzheimer's Center in Fort Worth, where she has lived since October 2013. Brown said she signed her mom up as a possible candidate for the clinical trials in hopes of not only finding an additional drug that could help her health remain stable but also to contribute to research that could one day make millions of people's quality of life better.

"Obviously I don't want my daughter to go through this. Of all the things I would love to pass on to her, this would not be one of them," Brown said.

"It's a robbing disease. It takes brilliant, talented, creative people and turns them into nothing. I'm interested in anything that would help catch it, prevent it, stop it, reverse it."

Alzheimer's disease is the sixth-leading cause of death in the U.S. and the only top-10 cause of death that can't be prevented, slowed down or cured, according to the Alzheimer's Association. Barring medical breakthroughs to prevent or cure the disease, the number of Americans 65 and older with Alzheimer's is expected to nearly triple from 5.1 million to 13.8 million by 2050.

An estimated 300,000 people in Texas have Alzheimer's, and those numbers will only climb as people live longer.

"To me, there is a sense of urgency. The treatments we have are insufficient," O'Bryant said. "I believe some of these new drugs, when added in conjunction with existing drugs, can have some potential for patients. We have to do something about this Alzheimer's epidemic, and we have to do something now."

Pharmaceutical companies have reached out to UNT Health Science Center and similar research facilities across the country to test drugs that affect the brain differently than current treatments do, O'Bryant said. One drug being tested, for example, creates activity in the brain that's similar to activity caused by exercise.

"We know exercise is good in the brain and may in the long run be useful in preventing cognitive loss in Alzheimer's disease. Getting a drug that acts like that could be of tremendous value to patients," O'Bryant said. "You can live with this disease for quite some time. With finding these better treatments, we can preserve those later years in life so they can be enjoyed instead of fraught with memory loss."

Susan Schrock, 817-390-7639

Twitter: @susanschrock

Alzheimer's clinical trials

The University of North Texas Health Science Center's Institute of Aging and Alzheimer's Disease Research is seeking patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease to participate in clinical drug trials. Interested potential patients should call 817-735-2694 or email Kim Brown at kim.brown@unthsc.edu.

___

(c)2015 the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Visit the Fort Worth Star-Telegram at www.star-telegram.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC