New drug could be answer to an overlooked yet devastating type of dementia
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Monash University researchers are assessing a new drug that could be a game changer for the dementia that has struck US actor Bruce Willis, and countless others as young as 35: behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD).
Unlike other types of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s Disease, there are no treatments; but a new drug — sodium selenate — was shown to be safe and well tolerated in people living with bvFTD, as outlined in the team’s 2022 study.
Now, the team is announcing the next step: measuring the drug’s impact on brain functioning.
While relatively rare, FTD causes progressive damage and shrinkage to either or both the frontal or temporal lobes of the brain, along with behavioural changes such as impulsivity, inappropriate behaviour and emotional indifference, and loss of language.
Neuroscientists Professor Terence O’Brien and Dr Lucy Vivash, from the School of Translational Medicine, are leading a phase 2b clinical trial in which half the participants will receive 52 weeks of treatment with sodium selenate, and the other half a placebo.
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