Donor Support Enables Crucial Dementia Trial

A generous donation has allowed scientists at Durham to initiate the first UK trial of a game-changing treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. Following a very successful US pilot study, it is hoped that this donor-funded UK trial will pave the way for a larger trial in the UK and beyond and encourage adoption by health services, including the NHS.

Dr Paul Chazot, Associate Professor in the Department of Biosciences, has been working over the last 20 years on identifying and validating the use of novel, effective and safe therapies for Alzheimer’s disease. As Dr Chazot explains “despite being relatively common, knowledge of the cause of, and the availability of effective treatments for, Alzheimer’s disease are still very limited”. 

The result of our generous donor’s support combined with Dr Chazot’s commitment and innovative research is a clinical study which aims to confirm whether a particular wavelength of infrared light can help slow down damage to brain tissue and, as a result, slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. The results from the US pilot study are incredibly positive.

The trial is to begin shortly with up to 100 participants, with reports that there has been a high degree of interest from those keen to take part in this potentially ground-breaking research, which, as Dr Chazot describes, will assess the impact of treatment on changes in “brain tissue, physiological responses and memory performance in mild/moderate Alzheimer’s disease”. 

This trial could be the decisive step needed to assess this treatment’s suitability for clinical use and pave the way for it to become available to patients in the UK and beyond.