{"id":11431,"date":"2013-03-14T17:38:28","date_gmt":"2013-03-14T21:38:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/?p=11431"},"modified":"2013-03-14T11:45:11","modified_gmt":"2013-03-14T15:45:11","slug":"researchers-find-new-drug-may-improve-memory-in-people-with-moderate-alzheimers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/2013\/03\/researchers-find-new-drug-may-improve-memory-in-people-with-moderate-alzheimers\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers find new drug may improve memory in people with moderate Alzheimer&#8217;s"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From the American Academy of Neurology press release via EurekAlert!:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/senior_elderly_meal.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-9433\" alt=\"senior_elderly_meal\" src=\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/senior_elderly_meal.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a>A new drug may improve memory problems in people with moderate Alzheimer&#8217;s disease<\/strong>, according to a phase IIa study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology&#8217;s 65th Annual Meeting in San Diego, March 16 to 23, 2013. The drug is called ORM-12741.<\/p>\n<p>The drug is the first to target a specific subtype of adrenergic receptors (alpha-2C) in the brain, which are believed to be involved in modulation of brain functions under stressful conditions, or the &#8220;fight or flight&#8221; response. <strong>For the clinical trial, 100 people with moderate Alzheimer&#8217;s disease were randomly given either 30 to 60 milligrams or 100 to 200 milligrams of ORM-12741 or matching placebo pill twice a day for three months as add-on therapy to a cholinesterase drug.<\/strong> Additionally, use of memantine was allowed. These are the other Alzheimer drugs currently on the market. Neither the researchers nor the participants knew which treatments participants were receiving.<\/p>\n<p>After three months, researchers retested several aspects of the participants&#8217; memory and behavior. Those who took ORM-12741 tested higher on the tests of memory compared to those who received the placebo pill. <strong>At three months, the memory scores for those who received the placebo pill had worsened by 33 percent<\/strong>, whereas the scores improved by 4 percent for those who took ORM-12741.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<strong>Currently, there are still only a handful of Alzheimer&#8217;s drugs on the market and they have only moderate effects on the symptoms of the disease<\/strong>,&#8221; said study author Juha Rouru, MD, of Orion Pharma in Turku, Finland. &#8220;Anytime you have a drug that targets a new pathway in the brain and shows effectiveness in clinical trials, it is exciting.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It is estimated that 13.8 million people will have Alzheimer&#8217;s disease by 2050.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the American Academy of Neurology press release via EurekAlert!: A new drug may improve memory problems in people with moderate Alzheimer&#8217;s disease, according to a phase IIa study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology&#8217;s 65th Annual Meeting in San Diego, March 16 to 23, 2013. The drug is&hellip;&nbsp;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[195,42,18,194],"class_list":["post-11431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-memory","category-neuroscience","tag-alzheimers","tag-brain","tag-cognition","tag-dementia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11431"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11540,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11431\/revisions\/11540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}