This nutritional drink in this Alzheimer’s clinical trial is thought to have an ability to improve overall cognitive performance in Alzheimer’s patients with mild to moderate forms of the degenerative brain disease.

Following on recent clinical studies conducted in Europe, where the nutritional drink known as Souvenaid was shown to have improve verbal recall in Alzheimer’s patients during a three-month study.  The current study at Rush University wanted to determine if Souvenaid could slow the degeneration of memory in those people with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease.

The European results showed that Souvenaid improved verbal recall in patients suffering from mild Alzheimer’s disease.  Of the 225 patients studied, patients suffering from mild Alzheimer’s were randomly divided into two groups, with one being given Souvenaid and the other a placebo.

The current study will see 500 patients with both mild and moderate Alzheimer’s disease on FDA approved Alzheimer’s medications will take part in the double-blind study.  Half of these patients will take 4 ounces of Souvenaid for 24 weeks and the other have will take a placebo similar in flavor, color and composition.

Researchers will test whether the Alzheimer’s patients show improvements in cognitive and functional performance in areas such as memory, language, attention/concentration, executive functioning, information processing and recall.

If Souvenaid is shown to be effective at improving cognitive function , this nutritional drink may be used to supplement Alzheimer’s disease treatments in the near future.

Dimebon or dimebolin hydrochloride is an older Russian drug that was commonly used as an antihistamine.  Dimebon has shown to have successes in preventing brain cell deaths associated with brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

Both pre-clinical trials and Russian research has shown dimebon as a promising new Alzheimer’s treatment.  When used to treat Alzheimer’s patients, dimebon resulted in improved thinking, memory and behavioral functions in early to mid-stage Alzheimer’s patients.

Entering into clinical trials as an Alzheimer’s disease treatment, dimebon is hoped to provide a new therapy for Alzheimer’s disease within the next 10 years.

These latest results for this Alzheimer’s disease treatment were recently reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

In exploring the theorized effects of an overproduction of amyloid-beta researchers hoped that tarenflurbil, a selective amyloid-beta lowering agent, as an Alzheimer’s disease treatment would be beneficial.  Amyloid-beta is a peptide composed of certain amino acids that appear in brain plaques of patients with Alzheimer’s and it is thought to contribute to the onset of the brain disease.

In performing its Phase III trials on this Alzheimer’s treatment researcher was conducted at 133 research sites and involved 1,684 participants.  Patients were randomized to receive the Alzheimer’s disease treatment consisting of 800mg tarenflurbil or a placebo.  A total of 1,046 Alzheimer’s patients completed the 18-month trial.

Researchers concluded that the Alzhiemer’s treatment had no beneficial effect on the primary outcomes of cognition and activities of living after the 18-month trial.  In examining secondary outcomes such as quality of life and caregiver burden, this Alzheimer’s disease treatment showed no significant differences in those outcomes.

While participating in the trials, patients receiving the Alzheimer’s treatment tarenflurbil showed more incidents of dizziness, upper respiratory tract infections and anemia than those taking the placebo.

These Phase III results of this Alzheimer’s disease treatment were somewhat surprising given the encouraging results shown from a Phase II trial.

Irish-based company Elan Corp has discontinued the high-dose trials of this experimental Alzheimer’s treatment.

As part of the Phase II trials, Alzheimer’s patients were receiving the experimental drug treatment twice a day.  Doses of 1000mg and 2000mg of the Alzheimer’s drug treatment ELND005 were given to some patients, while others received 250mg and placebos.  The Phase II trial of this experimental Alzheimer drug treatment will continue at the lower dosage.

The company has indicated that all patients enrolled in the high-dose trials will be immediately withdrawn from the trial.  However a company spokesperson indicated that trials of this Alzheimer’s disease treatment will continue at the lower doses stating “Today’s decision speaks to our strong commitment to patient safety while allowing for the continued evaluation of ELN005 at the 250mg dose.”

Elan Corp has other Alzheimer’s disease treatments based on its Alzheimer’s Immunotherapy Program and has entered into a deal with Johnson & Johnson to continue the development of its Alzheimer’s drugs.