Liraglutide in Treatment of Alzheimer’s disease
Overview
There is currently no treatment that can prevent the disease and the only available treatments help with symptom control only. We are evaluating a possible future treatment for AD using an anti-diabetic drug that is already used for the treatment of diabetes.
There is a connection between type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer's disease; people with type 2 diabetes are much more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than healthy people of the same age group. Recently, a drug used to treat type 2 diabetes, called liraglutide, has shown promise for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. In laboratory studies it improves symptoms of Alzheimer's and reduces the amount of amyloid plaques in the brain, a hallmark of the disease.
This randomised, double blind, placebo controlled, multicentre clinical trial is led by Imperial College, and the participating centres include Kings College London, University College London, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University of Southampton, University of Bristol, Birmingham University, University of Brighton, St Georges University of London. Here we are evaluating novel diabetic drug Liraglutide intreatment of Alzheimer's disease (ELAD study) in 206 subjects. Lraglutide is currently licensed for diabetes, it has already passed through all the aspects of the drug development.
All subjects are having FDG PET and MRI, with a subgroup having Tau imaging and neuroinflammation scans. All scans are done at CIF.
Principal Investigator
Researchers involved
- Melanie Dani
- Valeria Calsolaro
- Daniela Femminella
- Zhen Fan
- Rebecca Atkinson
- Kathy Bouanane