A new treatment developed by Monash University could be a gamechanger for those afflicted with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), the same disease affecting US actor Bruce Willis.
This particular version of the disease is one of the most common causes of dementia in people under the age of 65 years old, affecting up to 60,000 people in the US at present.
Unlike other types of dementia, there are no accepted treatments to directly address the disease.
Monash’s new drug, sodium selenate, was shown to be well tolerated in people living with bvFTD in a 2022 study – the team is now leading a phase 2b trial to determine its impact on brain functioning.
Offers potential for disease-modifying treatment
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.
"This is an internationally unique clinical trial that, if positive, would bring to patients the first proven disease-modifying treatment for this currently untreatable and devastating progressive neurodegenerative disease,” Monash School of Translational Medicine neuroscientist Professor Terence O’Brien said.
“It’s also an inexpensive drug, which is important, as we’ve seen recently that new promising treatments for dementias can cost much more than what governments and ordinary people can afford.
“Sodium selenate is not quite as cheap as aspirin, but it is unlikely to cost tens of thousands of dollars either.”
Disease poses recruitment challenges
Professor Amy Brodtmann, a colleague from the School of Translational Medicine, said recruiting patients with degenerative neurological conditions comes with its own hurdles, but FTD poses a unique challenge.
“Fronto-temporal dementia is often misdiagnosed as depression, anxiety or Alzheimer’s Disease,” Professor Brodtmann said.
“Carers or partners are often exhausted from navigating the health system for a correct diagnosis, as GPs tend not to think of dementia when the person in front of them is in their 30s, 40s or 50s.”
Over the course of the trial, the team will compare changes to brain volume in the treatment and placebo groups.
Key markers will be levels of au, a protein involved in the development of FTD in the cerebrospinal fluid, the rate of cognitive decline and behavioural changes.
The trial will involve 120 patients 35 and older, with a diagnosis of possible or probable bvFTD.
You can visit this website to find out more or express interest in joining the trial.