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Assessing drugs for familial Alzheimer’s disease

May 4, 2016

Dr. Mario Masellis, a clinician-scientist and neurologist in the Hurvitz Brain Sciences Research Program at Sunnybrook Research Institute, is leading a study at Sunnybrook that is part of an international clinical trial called the Dominantly Inherited Azheimer Network Trials Unit.

The trial is the first to test antibody drugs to prevent or delay autosomal dominant Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a rare form of the disease that is genetically inherited and develops at an earlier age. People with this form of AD will start to have symptoms in their thirties and forties, decades earlier than when most people who develop AD show symptoms.

The trial tests two drugs designed to combat formation of amyloid plaque. Buildup in the brain of this protein, and another called tau protein, is believed to initiate development of AD. The predictable age of onset of autosomal dominant AD makes it possible to test treatments before symptoms begin, the time at which anti-amyloid therapies are thought to be most effective.

» Read the full story on Global News

» Read about Dr. Masellis’ research on imaging biomarkers for frontotemporal dementia

Dr. Mario Masellis