Research Center
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What is Alzheimer's (AD)?
Dementia is a brain disorder that seriously affects a person’s ability to carry out
daily activities. The most common form of dementia among older people
is Alzheimer's disease (AD), which initially involves the parts of
the brain that control thought, memory, and language. Although scientists
are learning more every day, right now they still do not know what causes AD, and there is no cure.
AD is named after Dr. Alois Alzheimer, a German doctor. In 1906, Dr. Alzheimer noticed changes in the brain tissue of a woman who had died of an unusual mental illness. He found abnormal clumps (now called amyloid plaques) and tangled bundles of fibers (now called neurofibrillary tangles). Today, these plaques and tangles in the brain are considered signs of AD.
Scientists also have found other brain changes in people with AD. Nerve cells die in areas of the brain that are vital to memory and other mental abilities, and connections between nerve cells are disrupted. There also are lower levels of some of the chemicals in the brain that carry messages back and forth between nerve cells. AD may impair thinking and memory by disrupting these messages.
What drugs are currently available to treat AD?
No treatment has been proven to stop AD. However, for some people in the early and middle stages of the disease, the drugs tacrine (Cognex®), donepezil (Aricept®), rivastigmine (Exelon®), or galantamine (Razadyne®, formerly known as Reminyl®) may help prevent some symptoms from becoming worse for a limited time in some patients. (Tacrine is no longer actively marketed by the manufacturer.) Another drug, memantine (Namenda®), has been approved to treat moderate to severe AD, although it also is limited in its effects. And the FDA recently approved the use of donepezil to treat moderate to severe AD.
Also, some medicines may help control behavioral symptoms of AD such as sleeplessness, agitation, wandering, anxiety, and depression. Treating these symptoms often makes patients more comfortable and makes their care easier for caregivers.
What potential new treatments are being researched?
The National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is the lead Federal agency for AD research. NIA-supported scientists are testing a number of drugs to see if they prevent AD, slow the disease, or help reduce symptoms. Some ideas that seem promising turn out to have little or no benefit when they are carefully studied in a clinical trial. Researchers undertake clinical trials to learn whether treatments that appear promising in observational and animal studies actually are safe and effective in people.
What are Clinical Trials?
People with AD, those with MCI, or those with a family history of AD, who want to help scientists test possible treatments may be able to take part in clinical trials. Healthy people also can help scientists learn more about the brain and AD. The NIA maintains the AD Clinical Trials Database, which lists AD clinical trials sponsored by the Federal government and private companies. You also can sign up for e-mail alerts on new clinical trials as they are added to the database. Additional clinical trials information is available at www.clinicaltrials.gov.
Many of these studies are being done at NIA-supported Alzheimer's Disease Centers located throughout the United States. These centers carry out a wide range of research, including studies of the causes, diagnosis, treatment, and management of AD.
The NIA also supports the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS), a consortium of researchers at 109 sites in the U.S. and Canada conducting large-scale clinical trials of new approaches to treating and preventing AD. The ADCS is based at the University of California, San Diego.