A new clinical trial in the UK could cut years from the search for Alzheimer’s treatments. It will test several drugs at the same time. Two repurposed medicines come first: one for type 2 diabetes and one for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
The study will check whether the drugs ease symptoms such as memory and thinking problems. It will also look at whether they help patients keep their quality of life.
First Patient Joins
Angela Bucksey, 67, from Cambridgeshire, is the first person to start treatment on the trial, called AD-SMART. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in January.
The disease runs in her family. Her mother and aunts had it. So the diagnosis was a disappointment, she said, not a shock. “But I was determined that it wasn’t going to define me.”
Joining the trial made her feel empowered. “Instead of just sitting there, you’re standing up and saying, I will fight back.”
Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia. It affects about 600,000 people in the UK.
Prime Minister Backs the Trial
Prime Minister Andy Burnham lost his father to Alzheimer’s last month. He said he knows how it feels to lose a loved one to dementia and has seen the damage it does to families.
“That’s why I’m proud to see this trial being launched in the UK, so that cutting-edge treatments can reach patients here as soon as possible,” he said.
How the Trial Works
AD-SMART is a multi-arm, multi-stage platform trial. Several treatments are tested at once. Their results are compared with one group taking a placebo.
This gives participants a better chance of receiving an active drug than in a traditional trial. If a drug shows no benefit, researchers can drop it quickly and add a new one. The approach has worked well in cancer and motor neurone disease.
An international panel of experts chose the first two drugs. They are metformin, used for type 2 diabetes, and atomoxetine, used for ADHD.
Both may reduce brain inflammation, which drives neurodegeneration. That is according to chief investigator Prof Paresh Malhotra of the UK Dementia Research Institute Centre for Care Research & Technology at Imperial College London.
“For too long, Alzheimer’s research has moved at the pace of one drug, one trial, one answer – sometimes taking a decade or more before we know if we’ve found something that works,” he said. His team is applying advances from cancer research to speed things up.
Who Can Take Part
For the drugs to count as successful, the study must show benefits for thinking and for everyday activities. “That’s what patients and their carers care about,” Malhotra said.
Researchers will recruit about 1,200 people with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s at more than 30 sites across the UK. Sites in Cambridgeshire, Surrey, London, Southampton and Edinburgh are already open.
Participants will have regular health checks, including cognitive tests. Scientists expect to finish evaluating the first drugs in 2030. More treatments will likely join the trial before then.
People with a confirmed Alzheimer’s diagnosis can register their interest on the AD-SMART website.
Hope for Families
Angela’s husband Steve is her study partner. He said the trial has lifted them out of the despair that follows a diagnosis everyone sees as non-recoverable.
“People who know we are on a drug trial understand that we’re doing something about it and, rather than be sorry for us, they can be encouraging,” he said.
Dr Sheona Scales, director of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said time is precious for people with the disease. More treatment options are urgently needed, she added.
The UK Dementia Research Institute and Alzheimer’s Research UK are leading the trial. The National Institute for Health and Care Research, the Medical Research Council and Health Data Research UK are partners. The UK government is funding it.
