Though no new drugs have been developed to treat Alzheimer’s disease since 2003, there’s hope on the horizon, according to Kathleen Welsh-Bohmer, director of the Bryan Alzheimer’s Center at Duke University.
The greatest advance in the past 10 years has been in the ability to diagnose the disease “reliably and early” thanks to improved imaging technology and a better understanding of the biology of the disease, she said. From that has come the possibility of intervening early enough in the disease to delay symptoms.
“There could be screening tests that could be done for folks in their 50s and 60s who may have had a family member with Alzheimer’s. They could begin to take a therapy; ultimately that’s the hope and intention,” she said.
While there’s no talk of a cure in the next decade — the more than 413 clinical trials between 2002 and 2012 recorded a 0.4 percent success rate — it’s realistic to anticipate being able to delay the onset of symptoms of the progressive neurodegenerative disease by five years, Welsh-Bohmer said.
Current clinical trials are testing at-risk individuals with normal cognitive function to determine the earliest stage at which existing drugs might be effective, the researcher said in an interview at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton on Tuesday.
In her speech, “Advancing the Prevention and Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease by 2025,” Welsh-Bohmer focused on the positives, on the advances in diagnostics and risk factors that are modifiable. While the major factors for developing Alzheimer’s are genetics and age, there are seven identifiable behaviors that can be modified to reduce additional risk, she told an audience of 70. The most reliable reductions in risk can be made by quitting smoking and being active, both of which show consistently strong results in observational studies.
Additional modifiable risk factors include chronic disease, such as hypertension and diabetes, diet, obesity, education and depression. With the success of anti-smoking campaigns, Welsh-Bohmer is confident that a similarly seismic change can be achieved in reducing obesity and its associated health problems. All of these can be addressed if people have the will to do so, she said, as she outlined behavioral studies that are working with smartphone apps and assistive devices to help people make and maintain lifestyle changes.
The Alzheimer’s Association estimates the number of those with Alzheimer’s in the U.S. at 5.3 million, affecting 10 percent of those over 65 and almost half of those over 85, a number that’s expected to multiply to 13.4 million by 2050. It currently costs the health care system $200 billion annually and there are more than 15 million unpaid caregivers.
If the onset could be delayed by five years, that would translate to millions fewer suffering from the disease each decade in addition to huge economic savings, said Welsh-Bohmer.
She estimated that it will take $2 billion in annual research funding to meet that goal by 2025. Since the National Alzheimer’s Project Act was passed in 2011, congressional funding has increased significantly with a $737 million base budget assigned for Alzheimer’s research. In July, the National Institutes of Health requested an additional $323 million, which would be divided among research and resources for caretakers.
Salasky can be reached by phone at 757-247-4784.
Walk to End Alzheimer’s
When: Saturday, October 17, 2015; registration at 8 a.m., walk at 10 a.m.
Where: Port Warwick, Styron Square, Newport News.
Information: www.alz.org; or contact Barbara Monteith, 757-793-5077, bmonteith@alz.org.
