Mélanie Gomez/Photo credits: NICOLAS GUYONNET / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 10:00 am, September 21, 2023

This Thursday is World Alzheimer's Day. While the disease directly affects nearly a million French people, scientific research is being carried out to find the cure for the disease. Biotherapies, marketed in the United States, are sources of hope.

This Thursday, September 21 marks World Alzheimer's Day, which affects nearly one million French people directly and two million caregivers. This disease of oblivion frightens 85% of French people. The search for a treatment is active. 180 clinical trials are taking place worldwide and 141 molecules are currently being tested.

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Biotherapies marketed in the United States

For the past three years, biotherapies, already marketed in the United States, have been the treatments that attract the most attention from scientific research. These antibodies clean a form of glue, the amyloid protein, accumulated in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. If the effectiveness of these biotherapies on memory loss is still modest, they raise new hope: "Finally, we have the ability to have an action on the disease process. Unfortunately, it's not just amyloid protein that's at stake. For example, the tau protein, which accumulates in our neurons and leads to its destruction, is still being tested by biotherapies," explains Professor Philippe Amouyel, director of the Alzheimer's Foundation.

"Other drugs will target inflammation. We are only at the beginning of the process, but it will be a cocktail of drugs that will fight the disease," he continues.

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Medications, prevention measures from the age of 45 and earlier detection... these measures could help transform Alzheimer's disease into a chronic disease such as hypertension.