A recent drug trial by the UCSF Memory and Aging Center is the first of its kind for neurodegenerative disorders and represents an exciting new method for evaluating the effectiveness of a single drug on participants with the same underlying biology, but different diagnoses. First used in cancer research, basket trials lump together patients by disease pathology, not by diagnosis or symptoms. The UCSF trial evaluated the effectiveness of a drug, TPI-287, in treating toxic buildup of tau protein in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AZ), corticobasal syndrome (CBS), and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). While the drug ultimately did not show promise, scientists still drew useful takeaways from the study, and future studies of neurodegenerative disease may benefit from utilizing a basket trial design.
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