Some of the world’s largest drug companies are trying to develop preventative drugs for Alzheimer’s disease, prescribing drugs for high-risk patients that would reduce plaque on the brain and stave dementia off even before it starts. There have been so many failed attempts at developing successful drugs to delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease that it’s hard to have new hope. But this attempt does look promising. Both Eli Lilly Co. and Eisai Co. are going to do large-scale drug trials on thousands of healthy adults, helping to push back cognitive decline before it even starts. By the time people show obvious signs of Alzheimer’s or dementia, there’s usually been so much brain damage that not a lot can be done. Recent brain-scan studies have shown that toxic proteins, including amyloid, can accumulate in the brain for two decades or more before they lead to dementia. Neurologists are hoping that removing amyloid before it causes damage will provide a huge impact on this disease.
