UK team unveils breakthrough Alzheimer's drug

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The drug, rember, slows progression of the disease by as much as 81 per cent, a British-led study found.

People taking it for 50 weeks had a slower decline in blood flow to the parts of the brain that are important-for memory than those taking a dummy pill. Rember is the first drug to act on the tau tangles that develop in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease.

Such tangles are made up of the protein, tau, which form inside nerve cells in the brain. The tangles first destroy the nerve cells linked to memory and then destroy neurons in other parts of the brain as the disease progresses.

The study was carried out by Professor Claude Wischik and colleagues at the University of Aberdeen. Professor Wischik, who co-founded TauRx Therapeutics, which is developing the treatment, said: "This is the most significant development in the treatment of the tangles since Alois Alzheimer discovered them in 1907."

The study is being presented at the International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease in Chicago.

Professor Wischik hopes to carry out a Phase 3 trial next year which, if successful, could lead to the drug becoming available by 2012.

A trial on people with Parkinson's could also be in the pipeline.