Lecanemab slows Alzheimer's disease: hope and challenges

The search for disease-modifying treatments for Alzheimer's disease is a global research priority. 1 WHOGlobal status report on the public health response to dementia. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240033245Date: Sept 1, 2021 Date accessed: December 21, 2022 Google Scholar Despite promising findings in mouse models 2 Schenk D Barbour R Dunn W et al. Immunization with amyloid-beta attenuates Alzheimer-disease-like pathology in the PDAPP mouse. Nature. 1999; 400: 173-177 Crossref PubMed Scopus (2992) Google Scholar and encouraging early phase human studies, successive large clinical trials of anti-amyloid immunotherapies failed to translate into clinical benefit, questioning the wisdom of such a strategy. Therefore, the recent publication of the phase 3 trial of lecanemab in early Alzheimer's disease 3 van Dyck CH Swanson CJ Aisen P et al. Lecanemab in early Alzheimer's disease. N Engl J Med. 2022; (published online Nov 29.)https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2212948 PubMed Google Scholar is likely to be seen as an historic moment in the field—the beginning of a new era of disease-modifying therapies for Alzheimer's disease. 4 Lannfelt L Möller C Basun H et al. Perspectives on future Alzheimer therapies: amyloid-β protofibrils—a new target for immunotherapy with BAN2401 in Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimers Res Ther. 2014; 6: 16 Crossref PubMed Scopus (108) Google Scholar This trial represents more than 20-years of research efforts that build on clinical, laboratory, and trial observations. 2 Schenk D Barbour R Dunn W et al. Immunization with amyloid-beta attenuates Alzheimer-disease-like pathology in the PDAPP mouse. Nature. 1999; 400: 173-177 Crossref PubMed Scopus (2992) Google Scholar , 4 Lannfelt L Möller C Basun H et al. Perspectives on future Alzheimer therapies: amyloid-β protofibrils—a new target for immunotherapy with BAN2401 in Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimers Res Ther. 2014; 6: 16 Crossref PubMed Scopus (108) Google Scholar