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Health Check: 'Historic' claims for new Alzheimer’s drug

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Pharmaceutical research into brain disorders

2022/10/05 GMT

'Historic' claims for new Alzheimer’s drug

BBC World Service - Health Check, 'Historic' claims for new Alzheimer’s drug

Treatment hope for Alzheimer’s patients

New drug looks promising for Alzheimer’s disease; detecting polio and Covid in sewage water; could folic acid reduce suicide risk?

There’s encouraging news about a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease following years of disappointing drug trials. The drug lecanemab is a monoclonal antibody which is designed to remove clumps of amyloid proteins which damage the brain. Professor Bart de Strooper who’s director of the UK Dementia Research Institute explains how patients who had regular infusions of the drug had their rate of cognitive decline reduced by 27% when compared to those given a placebo. 

Sewage testing has been used around the world during the Covid pandemic – and at the moment children in London are being vaccinated against polio after the virus was found in waste water. The BBC’s Health and Science Correspondent James Gallagher takes us on a tour of a sewer in southern England. 

Claudia Hammond’s guest this week Professor Graham Easton from Queen Mary University of London looks at whether folic acid could reduce suicide and self harm – and whether it’s ok to take anti-depressants during pregnancy. 

Presenter: Claudia Hammond
Producer: Paula McGrath

(Picture: Pharmaceutical research into brain disorders. Photo credit: Westend61/Getty Images.)

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