PROVIDENCE – A drug studied at two Rhode Island hospitals has earned approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.
Studies show that Tauvid, or flortaucipir F18, used along with positron emission tomography, or PET, imaging, helps detect the presence of a substance known as tau protein in Alzheimers’s patients’ brains.
The presence of the protein is a significant symptom of Alzheimer’s. Flortaucipir is a dye that binds to tau protein in the brain after injection.
Butler Hospital was one of 27 facilities across the country to study the drug. The hospital partnered with Rhode Island Hospital, which performed PET imaging on patients.
“We are so proud to have partnered with Rhode Island Hospital to be part of this major advance in the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and we’re deeply appreciative of our courageous study participants who made this happen,” said Dr. Stephen Salloway, director of the Memory and Aging Program at Butler Hospital.
Salloway was a leading physician during the research process and a co-author of a recent national study that found the combination of PET imaging and flortaucipir effective in detecting tau protein.
Patients who participated in the study agreed to undergo PET brain imaging, and to donate their brains for research after death. Participants in Rhode Island, many of whom had an Alzheimer’s or dementia diagnosis, ranged in age from 55 to 104 years old, and all were terminally ill with life expectancies of less than six months. Six brains were donated in Rhode Island, Salloway said.
“Our team would like to acknowledge the special contributions of these Rhode Islanders and their families,” he said. “This is a milestone achievement, only a dream 10 years ago, that will pave the way for new diagnostic blood tests and new treatments that will transform care for patients with Alzheimer’s disease.”
Brains that were examined post-mortem confirmed results of the imaging.
“The announcement by the FDA regarding approval of tau-PET imaging for Alzheimer’s disease in the clinic is a major advancement for the field,” said Dr. Jonathan Drake, associate director of the Alzheimer’s Disease and Memory Disorders Center at Rhode Island Hospital.
He continued, “We know that tau protein buildup in the brain is one of the main drivers of Alzheimer’s disease, which begins long before the first symptoms of memory loss occur. A long-standing goal of the field has been to develop techniques for detecting tau at its earliest stages and developing strategies for preventing disease progression, so this news is indeed very exciting.”
Elizabeth Graham is a PBN contributing writer.
