Anti inflammatory drugs NSAID found inefective in prevention of Alzheimer's


Devdiscourse News Desk | Washington DC | Updated: 06-04-2019 14:58 IST | Created: 06-04-2019 14:33 IST
Anti inflammatory drugs NSAID found inefective in prevention of Alzheimer's
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Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) are ineffective for the prevention of Alzheimer's disease, reveals new research published in the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. For decades, researchers have known that inflammation accompanies Alzheimer's disease (AD) brain lesions. Several earlier studies suggested that 'super-aspirins' or Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) could help avoid the disease.

However, clinical trials showed that NSAIDs don't help patients who already have AD symptoms. Doctors wondered whether these drugs could still be helpful to people who were at risk of developing the disease, but weren't yet showing symptoms. To test this hypothesis, researchers developed a new approach to AD prevention trials and used it to test whether the common NSAID naproxen could indeed stop the disease in its tracks before people developed AD symptoms. But, the results were not encouraging.

"To give the NSAID story one more chance to end well, we enrolled trial participants at the earliest stages of disease development, before they exhibited cognitive impairment," explained Dr John Breitner, the study's senior author. "The resulting trial, known as INTREPAD, examined the effects of naproxen in people who had a strong family history of AD but 'squeaky-clean' memory and other cognitive abilities," said Breitner.

Many researchers have noted the special challenge of measuring disease development at a time when they could not rely on symptoms to assess the effects of treatment. To deal with this challenge the researcher collaborated in developing a new Alzheimer Progression Score (APS) that was shown elsewhere to predict the onset of clinical disease over the coming decade or more.

The APS measures the early development of disease by combining many little changes into a composite score. Applying the APS to a trial sample of 200 people (100 assigned to naproxen and 100 to placebo) the INTREPAD results showed real changes over the two-year trial period.

However, there was no evidence that the APS change was reduced in those taking naproxen."The usual side effects were there but there was not the slightest suggestion of any benefit," said Pierre- Francois Meyer, the study's first author. "We think this is the end of the road for the use of NSAIDs for treatment or prevention of Alzheimer's disease, and it suggests a need for caution about using other anti-inflammatory drugs for this purpose," added Dr Breitner. "The world desperately needs a way to prevent this horrible disease and many other avenues are being investigated," he said. 

(With inputs from agencies.)

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