(Daily News Scan - DNS English) GV- 971 New Drug for Alzheimer's Disease
Important Points:
China has claimed to invent a new drug, meant to potentially treat Alzheimer’s disease. This new drug will be available to Chinese patients by the end of this year. The new drug will be called as GV-971 or “Oligomannate”, it is a seaweed-based drug, administered orally.
Alzheimer's disease is a neurological disorder in which the death of brain cells causes memory loss and cognitive decline. Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive brain disorder that typically affects people older than 65. When it affects younger individuals, it is considered early onset.
The disease destroys brain cells and nerves, and disrupts the message-carrying neurotransmitters.
Eventually, a person with Alzheimer’s loses the ability to perform day-to-day functions.
Symptoms of Alziemers disease may include memory loss, difficulty in completing familiar tasks, confusion with time or place, problems in speaking and writing, reduced or poor judgment, and changes in mood and personality. Alzheimer’s disease is also the most common cause of dementia — which is a syndrome and not a disease in itself, and whose symptoms include loss of memory, thinking skills, problems with language, changes in mood and deterioration in behaviour.
The cure for Alzheimer’s has not been invented yet, as its exact causes are not known. However Most of the drugs being developed either try to slow down or stop the progression of the disease.
In the US, there exist five prescription medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat the symptoms of Alzheimer’s. Last month, US-based biotechnology firm Biogen sought FDA approval for “aducanumab”, a drug it claimed could slow down the clinical decline in patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s.
GV-971 or “Oligomannate”, has been jointly developed by the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica and the Ocean University of China and Green Valley Pharmaceutical Company Ltd. Chinese researchers have claimed that oligomannate is capable of treating mild to moderate Alzheimer’s and may improve cognition.
Alzheimer’s involves two proteins, called beta amyloids and tau. When levels of either protein reach abnormal levels in the brain, it leads to the formation of plaque, which gets deposited between neurons, damaging and disrupting nerve cells. But it is not known why the levels of these proteins reach abnormal levels in the first place. Most existing drugs for Alzheimer’s try to target these proteins to manage some of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s.
Till now, there is no cure for Alzheimer’s; however, medications are available to help delay the progression of the disease and even control its symptoms. However with the claim of China a new ray of hope has emerged among the people affected with this disease. However the new drug will.
