Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02446, USA.
Sci Transl Med. 2011 Nov 30;3(111):111cm33. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3002609.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the only leading cause of death for which no disease-modifying therapy is currently available. Recent disappointing trial results at the dementia stage of AD have raised multiple questions about our current approaches to the development of disease-modifying agents. Converging evidence suggests that the pathophysiological process of AD begins many years before the onset of dementia. So why do we keep testing drugs aimed at the initial stages of the disease process in patients at the end-stage of the illness?
阿尔茨海默病(AD)是唯一一种没有现有治疗方法的主要致死原因。最近在 AD 痴呆阶段的临床试验结果令人失望,这引发了人们对我们目前开发疾病修饰药物方法的诸多质疑。越来越多的证据表明,AD 的病理生理过程在痴呆症发病前多年就已经开始。那么,为什么我们还要在疾病末期的患者身上测试针对疾病早期阶段的药物呢?