The drug acts on beta amyloid plaques, a protein that affects cognitive ability in the brains of patients with the disease.
The company Acumen Pharmaceuticals announced this Sunday (July 16, 2023) that its experimental drug for Alzheimer’s disease showed positive results in its 1st safety test. Here’s the full of the press release (275 KB, in English).
The drug, called ACI193, was tested in the Phase 1 study. The double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial – that is, part of the study participants receive substances without any effect and the rest, the real medicine. A total of 60 people with early Alzheimer’s participated.
Acumen’s drug acts on beta amyloid plaques, a protein present in the brain of patients with Alzheimer’s. The accumulation of this substance can affect the patient’s mental capacity, interrupting communication between cells. The drug seeks to reduce the level of this protein, thus delaying the effects of the disease.
The action is similar to that of the FDA-approved drug lecanemab (Food and Drug Administration), the United States drug regulatory agency, in January of this year.
In the initial test of ACI193, 3 intravenous doses of 2 mg/kg, 10 mg/kg, 25 mg/kg and 60 mg/kg were applied. According to the company, the highest doses of 25 mg/kg, applied every 2 weeks, and 60 mg/kg, applied every 4 weeks, showed the best results in reducing the accumulation of beta amyloid plaques.
In trials at 60 mg/kg, only 10.4% of treated participants (5 people) developed a brain swelling condition known as ARIA-E associated with amyloid-targeted treatments. Of these, only 1 patient had symptoms that resulted in discontinuation of the drug.
“We believe that the robust database generated by this Phase 1 study establishes the broad therapeutic index of ACU193 and guides future clinical dosing rationale”said Acumen President and CEO Daniel O’Connell.
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