Alzheimer drugs and ‘lecanemab’

New Alzheimer drugs and there’s encouraging news about a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease following years of disappointing drug trials.

This programme is available on the Health Check Page and is available NOW On-Demand until Wednesday the 13th of October. It will also be broadcast on Sunday the 9th of October in Phuket at 8:00 AM on 91.5 FM and 102.5 FM and Online via the Internet radio portals.

The drug lecanemab is a monoclonal antibody which is designed to remove clumps of amyloid proteins which damage the brain.

Alzheimer drugs and ‘lecanemab’ cognitive decline reduced

Professor Bart de Strooper who’s director of the UK Dementia Research Institute explains how patients who had regular infusions of the drug had their rate of cognitive decline reduced by 27% when compared to those given a placebo.

Sewage testing has been used around the world during the Covid pandemic – and at the moment children in London are being vaccinated against polio after the virus was found in wastewater.

The BBC’s Health and Science Correspondent James Gallagher takes us on a tour of a sewer in southern England.

Claudia Hammond’s guest this week Professor Graham Easton from the Queen Mary University of London looks at whether folic acid could reduce suicide and self-harm – and whether it’s ok to take anti-depressants during pregnancy.

Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Paula McGrath

(Picture: Pharmaceutical research into brain disorders. Photo credit: Westend61/Getty Images.)

Henrietta Lacks is a lady with a legacy

Henrietta Lacks died in 1951 from virulent cervical cancer.

A sample of those cancer cells was taken at the time and the way they behave has changed medical science forever – contributing to everything from the polio vaccine to drugs for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.

91.5 and 102.5 FM with the BBC every weekend.