Aducanumab was discontinued in January 2024 and the FDA put donanemab on hold for further safety review in March 2024. So, I think one should be cautious about lecanemab.
After the CLARITY-AD clinical trial results of lecanemab were interpreted as positive, and supporting the amyloid hypothesis, the drug received accelerated Food and Drug Administration approval. However, we argue that benefits of lecanemab treatment are uncertain and may yield net harm for some patients, and that the data do not support the amyloid hypothesis. We note potential biases from inclusion, unblinding, dropouts, and other issues. Given substantial adverse effects and subgroup heterogeneity, we conclude that lecanemab’s efficacy is not clinically meaningful, consistent with numerous analyses suggesting that amyloid-β and its derivatives are not the main causative agents of Alzheimer’s disease dementia.
There is a recent meta analysis of published studies in animal models finding that rapamycin helps prevent and reduce plaque deposition.
“ Rapamycin therapy reduced age-related plaque deposition by decreasing AβPP production and down-regulating β-secretase and γ-secretase activities, furthermore increased amyloid-β clearance by promoting autophagy, as well as reduced tau hyperphosphorylation by up-regulating insulin-degrading enzyme levels.”
This is highly misleading (not on your part, @MAC — on the part of the authors). The passage Mac references says:
Interestingly, everolimus has been found to delay aging and reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in preclinical trials (67). A study found that everolimus increased hippocampal neurogenesis and synaptogenesis to improve cognitive function and prevent cognitive decline (68).
"Preclinical trials is a nonsense phrase, but put that aside. The reference 67 says absolutely nothing about rapa or everolimus having an effect on AD or even a mouse model of AD. Reference 68 is more on point, but not super-hopeful: "“Everolimus improves memory and learning while worsening depressive- and anxiety-like behavior in an animal model of depression”. And depression is a risk factor for dementia in humans …