A major drug trial has brought scientists closer to making a drug that could prevent thousands of deaths from heart attacks.
From the past six years, international clinical trials have been going on a new drug, ticagrelor.
The new findings have revealed that the platelet function in patients taking ticagrelor recovered much quicker after the drug is stopped, compared to the current gold standard drug, clopidogrel.
This study has also confirmed that breathlessness occurs as a side effect of ticagrelor but this is not associated with any harmful effects on lung or heart function.
The findings also include a new analysis of a previous trial looking at ticagrelor.
This new examination of the Plato trial, which was completed last year, showed that ticagrelor prevents 1 in 5 deaths after a heart attack, and patients who develop the adverse effect of breathlessness with ticagrelor still benefit from a lower risk of death compared to patients treated with clopidogrel for one year following a heart attack.
This has also confirmed that patients treated with clopidogrel, who have a genetic variant that reduces the effect of this drug have a slightly higher risk following heart attack but ticagrelor is not affected by this variant and is still more effective than clopidogrel, regardless of a patient's genetic make-up.
The study has previously shown for every 1,000 patients treated for one year with ticagrelor instead of clopidogrel, there would be 14 fewer deaths or 11 fewer heart attacks without an increase in bleeding problems.
India's premier clinical research institute
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Diabetes medication safe for Alzheimer's patients
The diabetes medication pioglitazone is generally well tolerated and could be a potential treatment option for patients with Alzheimer's disease.
"Alzheimer's disease is an immense and growing public health problem," the authors write as background information in the article.
"Although prescription drug therapy for the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease has been available since 1993, these agents do not fundamentally alter the pathological expression of the disease or its progressive course. The failure of several recent treatment trials directed at the beta-amyloid peptide, a key pathological correlate of Alzheimer's disease, suggests a need to explore alternative approaches to Alzheimer's disease treatment that are not focused on beta-amyloid metabolism," they said.
Another potential therapeutic target for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease is the nuclear receptor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma, PPAR-gamma, which acts to regulate glucose and lipid metabolism.
A class of drugs known as thiazolidinediones, originally developed to reduce insulin resistance in patients with type 2 diabetes, are potent agonists (trigger a response) of PPAR-gamma.
To evaluate the safety of one of these medications, pioglitazone, in patients without diabetes but with Alzheimer's disease,an 18-month, double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized controlled trial was conducted.
Twenty-nine patients without diabetes but with probable Alzheimer's disease were randomly assigned to receive either pioglitazone (titrated to 45 milligrams daily) or matching placebo, along with 200 international units of vitamin E.
A total of 25 patients (12 taking pioglitazone and 13 taking placebo) completed 18 months of therapy. Two of the patients who discontinued participation in the study early had a change in caregivers status, and two withdrew their consent; no discontinuations were attributed to adverse events.
Peripheral edema, swelling of the legs and feet, was the main adverse event, affecting four patients in the pioglitazone group (28.6 percent) compared with none in the placebo group.
"This is consistent with the known adverse event profile of pioglitazone. No group differences in laboratory measures were identified," wrote the authors.
"Alzheimer's disease is an immense and growing public health problem," the authors write as background information in the article.
"Although prescription drug therapy for the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease has been available since 1993, these agents do not fundamentally alter the pathological expression of the disease or its progressive course. The failure of several recent treatment trials directed at the beta-amyloid peptide, a key pathological correlate of Alzheimer's disease, suggests a need to explore alternative approaches to Alzheimer's disease treatment that are not focused on beta-amyloid metabolism," they said.
Another potential therapeutic target for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease is the nuclear receptor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma, PPAR-gamma, which acts to regulate glucose and lipid metabolism.
A class of drugs known as thiazolidinediones, originally developed to reduce insulin resistance in patients with type 2 diabetes, are potent agonists (trigger a response) of PPAR-gamma.
To evaluate the safety of one of these medications, pioglitazone, in patients without diabetes but with Alzheimer's disease,an 18-month, double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized controlled trial was conducted.
Twenty-nine patients without diabetes but with probable Alzheimer's disease were randomly assigned to receive either pioglitazone (titrated to 45 milligrams daily) or matching placebo, along with 200 international units of vitamin E.
A total of 25 patients (12 taking pioglitazone and 13 taking placebo) completed 18 months of therapy. Two of the patients who discontinued participation in the study early had a change in caregivers status, and two withdrew their consent; no discontinuations were attributed to adverse events.
Peripheral edema, swelling of the legs and feet, was the main adverse event, affecting four patients in the pioglitazone group (28.6 percent) compared with none in the placebo group.
"This is consistent with the known adverse event profile of pioglitazone. No group differences in laboratory measures were identified," wrote the authors.
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