Shared from the 12/10/2019 The Providence Journal eEdition

Brown, Butler, Miriam team up on Alzheimer’s research

Clinical trial will test drug typically used to treat HIV

Picture

“This is such an exciting trial because this is an entirely new target for treating Alzheimer’s,” says Dr. Stephen P. Salloway, director of Butler Hospital’s Memory and Aging Program. [THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL, FILE / KRIS CRAIG]

PROVIDENCE —Researchers at Brown University, Butler Hospital and The Miriam Hospital are beginning a phase-one clinical trial of a drug that could provide “a new avenue of treatment” for Alzheimer’s disease, the three institutions announced on Monday.

The drug, emtricitabine, sold under the brand name Emtriva, is typically used to treat HIV infection.

But a study led by Brown professor of molecular biology John Sedivy has demonstrated that it may reduce age-related inflammation that has been associated with Alzheimer’s.

He reported on his findings with mice earlier this year in the journal Nature.

“There’s been a tremendous push to start thinking about Alzheimer’s and other age-associated diseases in new ways,” Sedivy, director of the Brown Center on the Biology of Aging, said in a news release. “We know that the Alzheimer’s brain is an inflamed brain, and we’re hopeful that by down-regulating that inflammation we can modify the course of the disease.”

Sedivy will lead the new research with leading Alzheimer’s scientist and clinician Dr. Stephen P. Salloway, a professor of neurology and psychiatry at Brown’s Warren Alpert Medical School and director of Butler Hospital’s Memory and Aging Program.

“This is such an exciting trial because this is an entirely new target for treating Alzheimer’s,” said Salloway, who is also affiliated with Brown’s Carney Institute for Brain Science. “This is the kind of discovery science that will be necessary for us to find more effective treatments for this disease.”

The research is being supported by a $750,000 grant from the Chicago-based Alzheimer’s Association, the world’s largest organization devoted to Alzheimer’s science and advocacy.

For the phase-one trial, the researchers plan to recruit 35 patients, 25 of whom will get the drug and 10 of whom will get a placebo.

The primary goal is to test the safety and tolerability of the drug in Alzheimer’s patients, according to the scientists.

“The first priority here is safety,” Sedivy said. “These drugs are prescribed to millions of people around the world with HIV and are very well tolerated. But HIV patients tend to be on the younger side, so we need to make sure the drug is well tolerated in older people, and people with Alzheimer’s in particular.”

Sedivy and Salloway and their staff will work with Dr. Rami Kantor, director of the HIV Resistance Laboratory at The Miriam Hospital, and Constantine Gatsonis and Fenghai Duan with the Center for Statistical Sciences at Brown’s School of Public Health. gwmiller@ providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7380

On Twitter: @ gwaynemiller

“The first priority here is safety. These drugs are prescribed to millions of people around the world with HIV and are very well tolerated. But HIV patients tend to be on the younger side, so we need to make sure the drug is well tolerated in older people, and people with Alzheimer’s in particular.”
Brown professor of molecular biology John Sedivy

See this article in the e-Edition Here