"An experimental Alzheimer https treatment slowed memory loss https by about onethird in people with mild Alzheimers https offering hope that the drug can alter the course of the progressive disease. Called solanezumab the drug attaches to a protein called betaamyloid that builds up and clumps together to form sticky plaques that riddle Alzheimers https patients brains. The drug is designed to prevent those clumps from forming. The benefit is small and studies have been inconsistent says researcher Rachelle Doody MD head of Alzheimers disease research at Baylor College of Medicine. But the study offers evidence that targeting betaamyloid can benefit patients she says. Larger studies in many more patients are needed before the drug will be available though she says. The findings were presented here at the American Neurological Association meeting. Encouraging Results Maria Carrillo PhD a neuroscientist and vice president for medical and scientific relations for the Alzheimers Association calls the results encouraging and says she hopes development will continue.  While betaamyloid is the leading hypothesis of what causes the disease that has remained unproven. This study may not have hit on everything and it is not the home run we wanted but it is the first time weve seen cognitive benefit with an amyloid treatment she says.  The latest results come from a combined analysis of a patient study and a patient study both of which involved people with mild to moderate Alzheimers disease. When the findings of the two studies were looked at individually patients given solanezumab for  months didnt do better on either a test used to measure patients symptoms or a measure of how well patients are functioning than patients given a placebo https Combining the two studies to give them more statistical power showed that patients on solanezumab didnt lose their memories as quickly as those on placebo. The results really became clear when the researchers looked only at those patients with mild earlystage disease. In the analysis those given solanezumab had a  reduction in memory loss https and other mental symptoms compared with those on placebo. There was even a hint that the drug helped to slow the decline in functioning.  Asked if the  improvement in cognitive decline is meaningful to a patient Carrillo said I have a family member with AD. I would be happy with a sustained cognitive benefit for my motherinlaw. The only side effect that happened more often in people on solanezumab than patients on placebo was chest pain https . vs. .. Other Alzheimers Drugs in LateStage Testing There are more than  million Americans living with Alzheimers disease https which disrupts memory learning and other mental functions. In  estimates showed nearly half a million new cases each year and by  there will be nearly a million new cases annually according to the Alzheimers Association. Also at the meeting researchers offered an update on another drug called bapineuzumab which targets betaamyloid in the brain https In August researchers reported that patients taking bapineuzumab didnt fare any better in terms of memory loss or daily functioning than those taking placebo. Reisa Sperling MD director of the Center for Alzheimers Research and Treatment at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston now reports that imaging studies show bapineuzumab reduces betaamyloid more than placebo. Is the lack of a bigger effect in terms of reducing symptoms because we are giving too little of the drug or giving the drug too late she asks. Hopefully these new results from the bapineuzumab studies together with the clinical results from the solanezumab studies may provide a potential path forward for Alzheimers research Sperling says. No cost has been set for either drug but targeted diseasemodifying drugs used to treat arthritis https generally cost hundreds of dollars a month. These findings were presented at a medical conference. They should be considered preliminary as they have not yet undergone the peer review process in which outside experts scrutinize the data prior to publication in a medical journal."