Research

Investigational Alzheimer’s drug improves biomarkers of the disease

Randall Bateman, MD, director of the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network-Trials Unit (DIAN-TU), an ongoing international clinical trial to evaluate experimental Alzheimer’s drugs, speaks with DIAN-TU participant Taylor Hutton. One of the drugs tested in the DIAN-TU, gantenerumab, improved biomarkers of disease despite unclear cognitive effects, prompting study leaders to offer participants the option of continuing to receive the drug and participate in follow-up examinations as part of a so-called open label extension.
View Content

An investigational Alzheimer’s drug reduced molecular markers of disease and curbed neurodegeneration in the brain, without demonstrating evidence of cognitive benefit, in a phase 2/3 clinical trial led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis through its Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network-Trials Unit (DIAN-TU). These results led the trial leaders to offer the drug, known as gantenerumab, to participants as part of an exploratory open-label extension. The researchers continue to monitor changes in measures of Alzheimer’s disease in those participants who are receiving the drug.