11
submitted 1 year ago by Dr_Cog@beehaw.org to c/science@beehaw.org
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Dr_Cog@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago

You can test for amyloid, yes. The most common method is a PET scan using a tracer (ingestible marker) that sticks to amyloid and "lights up" in the scan. However there are new blood tests that works fairly well, and are getting better (but from personal experience are not as accurate as a PET scan).

You would get a prescription if you meet the criteria. First, you would need to have abnormally high amyloid levels but without any other signs or symptoms of Alzheimer's (like cognitive impairment). This is because this drug targets only the first stage (amyloid), but not any progressive stage. You would also need to meet some other criteria to determine that you are both eligible and a good candidate for it to work (e.g. no history of strokes or other brain injury). The drug is also at the moment not covered by any insurance, so you would be paying quite a bit, however this will likely change in the near future.

[-] wjs018@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Great insight into the clinical process of Alzheimers care. I have worked on Amyloid programs before (early stage pharma R&D), and was wondering if there are significant clinical differences between lecanemab and aducanumab that makes you think this approval will have a less problematic trajectory? From my perspective, they are both mAbs targeting the same thing, but the discussion around lecanemab is different than it was for aducanumab, but perhaps that was primarily due to the non-standard phase 3 process of adu.

this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2023
11 points (100.0% liked)

Science

12941 readers
97 users here now

Studies, research findings, and interesting tidbits from the ever-expanding scientific world.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:


Be sure to also check out these other Fediverse science communities:


This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS