2019 – Posted in: Daily News – Tags: aducanumab, Alzheimer, Dementia, Dr. Alois Alzheimer, Food and Drug Administration

Alzheimer’s drug

For: Preliminary & Mains

Topics covered:

About Alzheimer’s drug?
What is Alzheimer’s and what are its symptoms and causes?
What is Dementia?

News Flash

China announced that a new drug, meant to potentially treat Alzheimer’s disease, will be available to Chinese patients very soon.

What is Alzheimer’s?

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive brain disorder that typically affects people older than 65. The disease destroys brain cells and nerves, and disrupts the message-carrying neurotransmitters. Eventually, a person with Alzheimer’s loses the ability to perform day-to-day activities.

Symptoms

Symptoms include memory loss, difficulty in completing familiar tasks, confusion with time or place, problems in speaking and writing, decreased or poor judgment, and changes in mood and personality.

Cause

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia among older adults.

Dementia

Dementia is a syndrome and not a disease in itself, and whose symptoms include loss of memory, thinking skills, problems with language, changes in mood and deterioration in behaviour. The causes of dementia can vary, depending on the types of brain changes that may be taking place.

The Chinese drug

The new drug called GV-971 or “Oligomannate”, it is a seaweed-based drug.
It has been jointly developed by the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica and the Ocean University of China and Green Valley Pharmaceutical Company Ltd.
“Oligomannate” has received approval from China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA).
The new drug can be used for the treatment of ‘mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and improving cognitive function’.”

Background

Alzheimer’s disease is named after Dr. Alois Alzheimer. In 1906, Dr. Alzheimer noticed changes in the brain tissue of a woman who had died of an unusual mental illness. Her symptoms included memory loss, language problems, and unpredictable behavior. After she died, he examined her brain and found many abnormal clumps (now called amyloid plaques) and tangled bundles of fibers (now called neurofibrillary, or tau, tangles). These plaques and tangles in the brain are still considered some of the main features of Alzheimer’s disease.

Another feature is the loss of connections between nerve cells (neurons) in the brain. Neurons transmit messages between different parts of the brain, and from the brain to muscles and organs in the body.

Important Information

Recently, in the US, Food and Drug Administration approves “aducanumab”, a drug that could slow down the clinical decline in patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s.

Source: Indian Express