Baycrest Health Sciences & Baycrest Foundation Publications
Issue link: http://baycrest.uberflip.com/i/1522962
21 BAYCREST | 2024 Drugs with promise Clinical trials explore cutting-edge medical cures Our clinical trials, led by an experienced team of renowned scientists, test promising experimental medications that can detect, treat, and prevent dementia. It's another frontier in the fight for healthy aging. The research team often has more than a dozen ongoing trials at a time, the most for Alzheimer's Disease in Canada. Our doctors focus on predictive neuroscience, which predicts how individuals can benefit most from specific treatments. It's the best way to optimize the effects of new therapies. • We took part in an international study that tested how plaque build-up in the brain can be eliminated. The drug has gone for FDA approval. • In a study that's still in the early phase, a drug is given to patients as capsules that can be taken orally. More than 40 sites around the world are taking part, including 11 in Canada. This new approach might lead to more safe treatments than other drugs out there. • A drug administered by IV infusion attacks inflammation. It has the potential to alter the course of Alzheimer's Disease by reducing brain inflammation. • Another option for reducing brain inflammation is easy to inject and might reverse the neural loss caused by Alzheimer's. • We're studying certain abnormal proteins in the brains of patients with early Alzheimer's. This is an exciting treatment that must be administered every three months directly into the spinal fluid by lumbar puncture. • Another study looks at the benefits of a new intravenous drug for Alzheimer's sufferers that also targets abnormal proteins. The drug was successful in one previous study. • A drug self-administered by subcutaneous injection every few weeks is being tested for its ability to attack plaque. • Our team is taking part in international trials to test immune therapies to prevent Alzheimer's. It's thought that deficits in the immune system may contribute to Alzheimer's and this new drug aims to correct those deficits. A sample of potential cures our scientists are exploring: