© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Dr. Seth Gill points to evidence of Alzheimer’s disease in positron emission tomography scans at the Center for Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment (CART) at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, US, March 30, 2023. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/ image file
By Julie Stenhuysen
CHICAGO (Reuters) – An experimental Alzheimer’s disease drug developed by Acumen Pharmaceuticals that targets a new form of the toxic beta-amyloid protein in the brain has passed early safety testing and will progress to a larger trial, the company said on Sunday.
The company said the drug, ACI193, was well tolerated in the first trial it tested in people. The results of a randomized, placebo-controlled study of 62 patients with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease were presented at the International Conference of the Alzheimer’s Society in Amsterdam.
Acumen’s drug targets and binds to amyloid-beta oligomers, a toxic, soluble version of the amyloid protein that forms the brain plaques associated with memory-stealing disease, Dr. Eric Siemens, Acumen’s chief medical officer, said in an interview.
The target is similar to that from Biogen (NASDAQ:) and Eisai’s recently approved Leqembi, which hits another form of soluble toxic protein in the brain. Leqembi won standard US approval earlier this month after showing it could clear amyloid plaques and slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in early-stage patients.
In the Acumen trial, 10.4% of treated participants (5 subjects) developed a brain swelling condition known as ARIA-E associated with amyloid-targeting therapies. Of these, only one had symptoms, which resolved after stopping the medication.
And 8.3% of them had a treatment-related brain bleed, known as ARIA-H.
“Because this antibody targets oligomers but not plaque, we didn’t know whether or not we were going to get any ARIA,” Simers said, adding that ARIA cases may indicate the drug has an effect.
The company said that people who got higher doses of the drug also showed a reduction in amyloid plaque after 6 to 12 weeks. Acumen said the study indicates the drug can be given intravenously on a monthly basis.