Memory drug may help Huntington’s patients
U.S. researchers suggest a medication studied in Alzheimer’s patients may benefit those with Huntington’s disease.
Researchers at the University of Rochester in New York, led by Dr. Karl Kieburtz, found Huntington’s disease patients taking the Alzheimer’s medication latrepirdine (Dimebon) had improved scores for thinking, learning and memory skills. Scores of those in the placebo group remained steady over the study period, the researchers say.
Current treatment for Huntington’s disease — a hereditary neurodegenerative disorder leading to death within 20 years of onset — treats motor symptoms but not the loss of cognitive abilities that occur early on in the disease.
“Taken together, our data suggest that latrepirdine, at a dosage of 20 milligrams three times daily, is well tolerated for 90 days in patients with Huntington’s disease and may have a beneficial effect on cognition,” the study authors say in a statement.
Kieburtz and colleagues randomly assigned 46 patients with mild to moderate Huntington’s disease to latrepirdine treatment and the other 45 to a matching placebo and found 87 percent of latrepirdine patients completed the study vs. 82 percent in the control group.
The study, reported in the Archives of Neurology found adverse event rates were 70 percent in the treatment group vs. 80 percent in the placebo group.