The Newest Alzheimer's Drugs Might Be Worthless, Review Finds

Tackling Alzheimer’s disease might be even harder than assumed. A report out today casts serious doubt on the latest drugs approved to treat the fatal neurodegenerative condition. Researchers examined the clinical trial data surrounding anti-amyloid medications for Alzheimer’s. While the drugs were effective at clearing away amyloid beta from the brain, they had next to little benefit on people’s cognition and memory, the authors found. What’s more, the medications can cause significant complications like bleeding in the brain. “Future research on disease‐modifying treatments for Alzheimer’s disease should focus on other treatments,” they concluded in their paper, published Thursday in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. The Cochrane Library is a British-based group that regularly publishes comprehensive reviews. It specifically asks scientists, clinicians, and even patients themselves to analyze the clinical trial literature relevant to important public health topics, including Alzheimer’s disease. The brains of people with Alzheimer’s become cluttered with the misfolded forms of two proteins, amyloid beta and tau. Some research has suggested that amyloid beta in particul