Newly approved drug may slow progression of Alzheimer’s

In this episode, Washington University researchers discuss the Food and Drug Administration’s recent full approval of the drug Leqembi (lecanemab) and what it could mean to the future of Alzheimer’s disease treatments. The drug is approved for use in people with mild dementia from Alzheimer’s disease, but researchers at Washington University’s Charles F. and Joanne Knight Alzheimer Disease Research Center (ADRC), believe the drug, along with other medications in clinical trials, one day may help prevent the development of memory loss and problems with thinking in people who have Alzheimer’s pathology in the brain but who have not yet developed clinical symptoms of the disease.

Barbara Joy Snider, MD, PhD, a professor of neurology and director of clinical trials at the Knight ADRC, says that although Leqembi doesn’t cure Alzheimer’s disease, it slows the decline in memory and thinking, and it also slows the progression of the disorder by removing some amyloid plaques from the brain.

John Morris, MD, director of the Knight ADRC, says with amyloid PET brain scans, blood tests and cerebrospinal fluid tests to detect problems before clinical symptoms of Alzheimer’s appear, it soon may be possible to delay or even prevent the development of Alzheimer’s dementia in some people at high risk.

The podcast, “Show Me the Science,” is produced by WashU Medicine Marketing & Communications at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.