Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Dec;34(12):3151-3153.
doi: 10.1007/s40520-022-02141-9. Epub 2022 May 19.

The new therapy for Alzheimer's disease: from a hope for a few to a false hope?

Stefania Orini  1   2 , Cristina Geroldi  3 , Orazio Zanetti  3
Affiliations

The new therapy for Alzheimer's disease: from a hope for a few to a false hope?

Stefania Orini et al. Aging Clin Exp Res. 2022 Dec.

Abstract

Since the late ninety, research on Alzheimer's disease has been focused on the search of drugs able to modify the disease course. Patients and caregivers waiting for news on this topic, received enthusiastically the advice of the approval of Aducanumab-anti-amyloid β monoclonal antibody-by the FDA, and that of its rejection by the EMA with even greater disappointment. To estimate the number of patients that we would be able to treat-hypothesizing a possible future approval by EMA- in the memory clinic of the IRCCS S. Giovanni di Dio FBF of Brescia, we analyzed 1561 patients undergone a first geriatric visit in January 1st to December 31st 2019. Applying the EMERGE and ENGAGE studies criteria, only 15 of them (1%) could be eligible for Aducanumab. The communication of scientific news should be transparent, more balanced and less sensationalistic, to avoid the rise of false hopes and consequent disillusionment.

Keywords: Aducanumab; Alzheimer; MCI; Scientific communication.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Patterson C (2018) World Alzheimer report 2018. Alzheimer’s Disease International, London
    1. Selkoe DJ, Hardy J (2016) The amyloid hypothesis of Alzheimer’s disease at 25 years. EMBO Mol Med 8:595–608. https://doi.org/10.15252/emmm.201606210 - DOI - PubMed - PMC
    1. Knopman DS, Jones DT, Greicius MD (2021) Failure to demonstrate efficacy of aducanumab: an analysis of the EMERGE and ENGAGE trials as reported by Biogen, December 2019. Alzheimers Dement 17:696–701. https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12213 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Tagliavini F, Tiraboschi P, Federico A (2021) Alzheimer’s disease: the controversial approval of Aducanumab. Neurol Sci 42:3069–3070. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-021-05497-4 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Alexander GC, Knopman DS, Emerson SS et al (2021) Revisiting FDA Approval of Aducanumab. N Engl J Med 26:769–771. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp2110468 - DOI

Substances

LinkOut - more resources