Local Resident Leads Ground-Breaking Trial into Alzheimer’s
March 18th, 2013
You may have seen on the news or heard on the radio about the ground-breaking drug trial for Alzheimer’s that is being launched this year. We were delighted to meet up with Dr Pat Kehoe of the University of Bristol who had the idea ten years ago that a common drug currently prescribed to lower blood pressure could also slow down the progression of Alzheimer’s. He is in demand worldwide to talk about this fantastic development, and we caught up with him between trips to Canada, New York and Belfast…
Dr Patrick Kehoe has lived in Bradley Stoke since 1999 with his partner of 20 years, Lynda, and their three children Drew (8), Ardan(5) and Felix (3). Originally from Ireland, Pat moved to Bradley Stoke from Cardiff following a job move to his present position at the University of Bristol. He previously worked as a Geneticist at Cardiff University looking into the genetics of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Pat undertook his first degree in Pharmacology which looks at how drugs stimulate/manipulate the body’s function and also brings in aspects of biology and medicine. He then went on to do his PhD in Genetics, at a time when ‘genetics’ was really only getting off the ground. It was an incredibly exciting time especially for research into Alzheimers. His move to the University of Bristol gave him a sabbatical from pure lab-based research to support Mental Health research in the NHS, which was exposure to a different work culture and gave him a different perspective of research that has been important in the research needed to get this drug to trial.
In 2002 he met Prof Seth Love, a neuropathologist, and their complimentary expertise and experience lead them to form The Dementia Research Group in 2006. Initially there were just 5 members in the team, which has now grown to 18.
There has been a local Dementia Research presence at Frenchay since the mid 1980’s when Prof Gordon Wilcock set up the South West Dementia Brain Bank. This resource has been fundamental in the research into Dementia and has supplied brain tissue for research worldwide.
Most of the funding for this research had to be gained externally and the biggest contributor over the years has been the local charity, BRACE, based at Frenchay. They have provided not only research grants but core support for infrastructure such as the brain bank and vital admin support which is often hard to get funding for.
If anyone, like me, is a little unclear of the difference between Dementia and Alzheimers, Dementia is the umbrella term for a set of symptoms including loss of memory, mood changes, and problems with communication and reasoning that end up massively affecting day to day living. The brain can shrink by around one third resulting in the sufferer having major problems, sometimes affecting their personality, and yet they are powerless to stop it.
The most common form of dementia is Alzheimers, where there are microscopic changes in the brain that ‘sneak up’ on you, the decline is slow and your abilities weaken. Vascular Dementia is the second most common form of dementia, and can be caused by various problems with the blood vessels in the brain or a series of strokes, each of which cause little amounts of damage that mount up.
Because of the nature of Alzheimer’s, it is incredibly hard to define and measure. Brain scans have improved greatly over recent years, and it is now possible to see the brain in great detail and take accurate measurements of its size. However, how it starts and progresses in one person may vary to that in another and often it is not possible to confirm the diagnosis until a post mortem examination of the brain is done.
Pat told us ” There is no way I’d have gathered sufficient evidence to justify the running of this trial without that initial funding from BRACE. This small, local charity has paved the way for World-Class study and I really want the public to know the difference they make when they put their odd £1 or £2 into a collecting tin, or support fundraising activities in the name of this amazing charity and others.”
“We all have different favourites to support. From a personal aspect for me three of my grandparents all suffered with some form of dementia and with an increasingly ageing population it has never been more important to find a cure for this heart-breaking disease that affects so many. “
Pat’s initial idea for a trial like this started 10 years ago when he worked on a biochemical pathway during his PhD. Since then he has been pursuing the story and building up evidence. He says it is like detective work case, and each shred of evidence that you can find to back up your findings strengthens your argument”.
You also need to have a solid theory and a team that can do the job. Then all you have to do is secure funding! Funding for this trial has now thankfully been granted by the Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Health Research. The study will use brain imaging to measure if the drug helps to reduce the rate of brain shrinkage which links to reduced memory function, whilst also measuring if it can help improve people s memory and quality of life.
The trial will start to recruit patients in July/August in at least ten cities across England, Scotland and Wales and will involve over 200 people. Everyone on this trial will have Alzheimer’s. Half will go onto the test drug and half will be given a placebo. Neither the study team, including Pat himself, nor the patients will know which drug they are taking – this is called a “Randomised Control Trial”. This is the ‘gold standard’ way of gathering data on how a drug performs. Should this be successful the trials will go to Phase 3 whereby it will be tested on thousands of patients.
Pat is in for an incredibly busy time – and it is especially difficult travelling so much away from home when you have such a young family, but Pat tells me his partner Lynda is most supportive.
He also mentions that he has been incredibly lucky that his ten years’ of study has continued to fall into place to support the need for this trial and that he has managed to be able to secure the funding to continue the work. (We think Pat is being very modest here and not just to do with ‘luck’!) He comments futher that it doesn’t always happen like this and research can fold, and clinical trials often fail, sometimes not due to the drug but because of the strict constraints the study has to be conducted under.
Dementia costs £23billion in the UK each year. This year the government granted £22million investment into research, a drop in the ocean to what could be saved if a cure could be found! With the ageing population costs are set to double.
Without wishing to get ahead of ourselves, the beauty of this drug, if it is found to work as we expect, is that it is already available and is cheap. People who have high blood pressure, and maybe even those with normal blood pressure, could be prescribed this much earlier in life when we know that some of the early changes of AD can occur but currently cannot easily detect because the memory problems haven t yet manifested in people Pat concluded.
We wish Pat and the team every success with the trial over the next four years. Recruitment for the clinical trial will begin in July/August 2013. If you are interested in participating in the study, please email [email protected] or visit www.dendron.nihr.ac.uk to find out more.
The BRACE Appeal Office, Frenchay Hospital, BRISTOL BS16 1LE
Registered Charity No. 297965 www.alzheimers-brace.org
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