AAN 2022: Novel drug may prove useful as a treatment for dementia
A research team from Sage Therapeutics (MA, USA) have completed a preliminary study utilizing a novel drug – SAGE-718 – to treat mild cognitive impairment and dementia associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
Their findings suggest that SAGE-718 is safe and might be associated with improvements in executive function, thinking and memory skills. SAGE-718 is a positive allosteric modulator of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors.
The findings of the study were announced at the American Academy of Neurology’s 74th Annual Meeting (2–7 April; Seattle, WA, USA). SAGE-718 is also the focus of other clinical trials, which are investigating whether it could be utilized for the treatment of cognitive impairment associated with Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease.
Aaron Koenig, author of the study, stated: “Cognitive impairment is often one of the earliest signs of Alzheimer’s disease, can be very difficult for patients and their families, and represents an area of great unmet medical need.”
There were 26 participants in the study with an average age of 67. Participants had an average score of 20.7 on the common cognitive test, which indicated cognitive performance consistent with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia.
During the study, participants took SAGE-718 on a daily basis for 2 weeks and were monitored for another 2 weeks. They also completed cognitive and memory tests at the beginning of the study, at the end of treatment and 1 month after treatment had concluded.
The primary motivation behind the study was to gather evidence on the safety of SAGE-718. Researchers did not observe any serious side-effects, while five participants experienced mild or moderate side-effects such as headache or constipation. One month on from treatment, the participants’ test scores had improved by an average of 2.3 points.
Koenig reported that some participants also exhibited improvement in assessments of their ability to conduct daily activities, particularly complex activities such as using a computer or managing their medication. Koenig commented, “If replicated in future studies, such improvements suggest that this drug may eventually provide meaningful benefits to people in their everyday lives.”
The constraints of this study are the small size and the fact that participants and researchers knew the drug was being administered, which may lead to bias. Further research is necessary to determine if SAGE-718 could be a useful treatment in an area of unmet medical need.
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