Plasma exchange therapy emerges as novel treatment for alzheimer's, claims study

The results brought forth some key facts-

• Treatment groups averaged 50 to 75% less worsening of ADAS-Cog scores and 42 to 70% less worsening of ADCS-ADL scores than control subjects.
• AMBER treated patients declined, on average, 66% less than control subjects based on ADAS-Cog scores (p = 0.06) and 52% less based on ADCS-ADL scores (p = 0.03).
• Analyses of changes from baseline to endpoint in patients with moderate AD found 61% less disease progression, based on both ADAS-Cog and ADCS-ADL scores, than sham-treated moderate AD patients (p = 0.05 for ADAS-Cog, 0.002 for ADCS-ADL).
• Although some slowing of disease progression was also found in the treated patients with mild AD, a similar pattern was unexpectedly seen for sham-treated mild AD patients.

The researchers were of the opinion that among the mechanisms that could have contributed to AMBAR's slowing of disease progression are reductions in neurotoxic Aβ species, tau pathology, neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, microcirculatory deficits, and neurotoxic auto-antibodies.

Authors concluded that the results from AMBAR are encouraging, in contrast to the other approaches that have been tried to slow AD's progression. They also suggested further relevant studies to optimize the protocols.

For details log on to: https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2020.00459