About this Episode
For decades, an Alzheimer’s diagnosis was largely seen as a one-way process: doctors could manage symptoms, but there was little they could do to alter the underlying disease.
That picture is beginning to change.
Researchers and clinicians are increasingly treating Alzheimer’s as a condition that can be targeted biologically, rather than simply managed once symptoms appear. Two antibody treatments, lecanemab and donanemab, can now slow cognitive decline in some people with early Alzheimer’s by targeting amyloid proteins associated with the disease.
And the research is moving even earlier. An international trial now aims to test whether an Alzheimer’s drug can prevent dementia from developing in people who have no memory symptoms but are considered at higher risk. Around 1,600 people aged 55 to 80 are being screened for the study.
Other research is exploring completely different biological mechanisms. Scientists at Case Western Reserve University, for example, found that restoring levels of the cellular energy molecule NAD+ reversed Alzheimer’s-related damage and restored cognitive function in mouse models. That is promising, but it remains laboratory research and has not yet been demonstrated as a treatment in humans.
The change is therefore not that Alzheimer’s has suddenly become curable. It is that the scientific approach is changing: researchers are increasingly asking not only how to slow the disease, but whether it can be treated earlier, modified, or potentially even reversed.
For millions of people affected by Alzheimer’s, that shift in thinking represents a significant reason for cautious optimism.
