Treating Alzheimer’s Disease is very challenging. Unfortunately, we don’t have very effective therapies that improve memory, but the strategies that we do have, that are drug based really work through the fact that we recognise in Alzheimer’s Disease that you are losing acetylcholine.
One of these neurotransmitters, a chemical in the brain, that helps memory. And so, our therapies in the Alzheimer’s space and in Lewy Body Dementia can be targeting this acetylcholine. And the drugs if you like, block the breakdown of that chemical in the brain so they are acetylcholine esterase inhibitors. That acetylcholine esterase being the enzyme that breaks down the chemical transmitter, acetylcholine, and therefore it allows that chemical to build up and improve memory.
The effects of this drug are not usually dramatic but they can be certainly helpful, not only for memory problems in Alzheimer’s Disease and in Lewy Body Dementia where Lewy Body variant of Alzheimer’s is the treatment, but also in relieving other symptoms that we see in things like Lewy Body Dementia such as hallucinations.
