Scientists from Sage Therapeutics found a new drug for mild cognitive impairment and mild dementia associated with Alzheimer’s disease is safe and may be linked to improvements in executive function, thinking and memory skills.
The research was presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 74th Annual Meeting and was conducted by Aaron Koenig et al.
The drug, called SAGE-718, is also for the treatment of cognitive impairment linked to Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease.
Cognitive impairment is often one of the earliest signs of Alzheimer’s disease, can be very difficult for patients and their families, and represents an area of great unmet medical need.
In the study, the team tested 26 people with an average age of 67. They had an average score of 20.7 points on a common cognitive test, indicating mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia.
The study was designed mainly to gather data on the drug’s safety. There were no serious side effects of the drug.
Five people had mild or moderate side effects believed to be related to the drug, such as headache or constipation.
After one month, the participants’ scores on the cognitive test had improved by an average of 2.3 points, to 22.8 points.
Some participants also had improvement in assessments of how well they were able to complete their daily activities, especially in complex activities such as using a computer, carrying out household chores, and managing their medications.
This coincided with consistent improvement on multiple tests of executive functioning that were administered during the trial.
These results support further research with larger numbers of people to determine whether this therapy is safe and effective in treating cognitive impairment in Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders and in improving how well people can function independently in their everyday lives.
If replicated in future studies, such improvements suggest that this drug may eventually provide meaningful benefits to people in their everyday lives.
SAGE-718 is a type of drug called a positive allosteric modulator of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors.
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