Monoclonal antibodies: a new trend for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease?
Introduction: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the main form of senile dementia. Most of the supposedly disease-modifying treatments in development are directed against the β-amyloid peptide, the administration of exogenous anti-Aβ monoclonal antibodies is a passive immunization strategy aimed at resolving the aggregation of this substance. Objective: Analyze the effectiveness of monoclonal antibodies in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Methods: This is a literature review, based on randomized clinical trials published between 2014 and 2021. The search was conducted in the PubMed database. Results: According to the eligibility criteria, 10 articles were selected. Two of the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase III studies, one published in 2018 and the other published in 2016, evaluated the intervention with Solanezumab and Bapineuzumab, respectively. Both were not shown to be statistically significant (P = 0.10) for the outcome improvement of the score in the cognitive subscale of 14 and 11 items “Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale” (ADAS-cog14 / 11). However, in a phase II randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial, published in 2021, the use of Donanemab in patients with early Alzheimer’s disease resulted in statistically significant cognitive and functional improvement (P = 0.04) for the outcome change in the scale “Integrated Alzheimer’s Disease Rating” (iADR). Conclusion: Although the use of Donanemab has resulted in cognitive and functional improvement, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase III clinical trials need to be conducted to prove the efficacy and safety of its use in clinical practice. Other monoclonal antibodies evaluated did not demonstrate evidence of benefit.