Lilly increases Alzheimer’s R&D
pharmafile | April 18, 2013 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | Alzheimer's, lilly
Eli Lilly and Company has bought a new diagnostic technology which may help point to a different way of treating Alzheimer’s disease.
For an undisclosed sum it has acquired two investigational positron emission tomography (PET) tracers from Siemens Medical Solutions US, which are intended to image tau (or neurofibrillary) tangles in the brain.
There are currently two pointers towards the development of Alzheimer’s: the first is the accumulation of amyloid-beta protein that forms beta-amyloid plaques outside of neurons, and it is in this area that research has tended to focus over the last couple of decades.
The second is the build-up of tau protein that forms tau tangles inside neurons, and this is something to which researchers have increasingly been turning since post-mortem samples of Alzheimer’s patients’ brains indicate a correlation between these tangles, and the disease’s severity.
There is a theory that both plaques and tangles are required for the disease to develop, with amyloid beta initiating the disease process and tau tangles then contributing to neuronal toxicity and death.
The formation of tangles, which mostly occurs after beta-amyloid plaques have developed, is thought to stop nutrients and essential molecules, leading to progressive loss of structure or function of neurons.
Any development in Alzheimer’s research tends to be eagerly seized upon, since by 2050 more than 100 million people worldwide will suffer from the disease the World Health Organisation predicts.
In addition to there being no current cure for this form of dementia, there is also no test which can detect tau tangles in living patients – and Lilly hopes Siemens’ technology could help identify people who are at risk and provide a marker for response to treatment.
“PET imaging is a valuable tool in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease,” insisted James Williams, chief executive of Siemens Molecular Imaging business unit.
“We are hopeful that this technology will both enhance our understanding of tau and its role in Alzheimer’s disease, and contribute to the development of our anti-amyloid and anti-tau based therapies to treat this disease,” said Jan Lundberg, president of Lilly Research Laboratories.
Under the terms of the agreement, Lilly has the option to commercialise the tracers, which will be developed by its molecular imaging subsidiary Avid Radiopharmaceuticals.
Tau-related Alzheimer’s treatments, generally at an early-stage, include TauRx Therapeutics’ candidate LMTX, which is entering Phase III in mild to moderate Alzheimer’s.
Adam Hill
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