University of Manitoba researchers launch clinical trial for Alzheimer’s

WINNIPEG — A team of researchers from the University of Manitoba is testing an experimental treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.

The clinical trial is being led by Dr. Zahara Moussavi and will test the effects of magnetic fields on the brains of early stage dementia patients.

The Weston Brain Institute has announced $1.7 million for Moussavi’s research.

The clinical trial will be run out of the Riverview Health Centre in Winnipeg, where Moussavi has her lab, as well as sites in Montreal and Australia.

The team is looking for 100 patients to volunteer to take part, and research is expected to take four years to complete.

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Moussavi hopes a process called repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, which is usually used to treat depression, could slow down the effects of Alzheimer’s disease.

“There are some hopes that we may improve the condition of a patient if they are at the early stages,” she said. “Or the least, we can slow down the progression and avoid further decline.”

The procedure involves passing a current through a patient’s brain using a coil that is placed on the forehead.

“As the currents run through the brain itself, it causes the neurons to fire and by firing these neurons in a certain pattern we believe that we can train them to be more excitable over time,” said Grant Rutherford, a PhD student working on the study.

Moussavi said thousands of people, including herself, are affected by the disease. Her mother has it. 

“Alzheimer’s disease is a thief,” Moussavi said Tuesday. “It comes and it steals away the most precious memories that people identify themselves with.”

Wendy Schettler, CEO of Alzheimer’s Society of Manitoba, thinks this is exciting research to have happen in Winnipeg.

She said many people will be interested in the chance to take part in a study of this nature.

“Often times when you are given a diagnosis of something you feel helpless and you wonder, ‘is there anything I can do if not to help myself, to help others?’”

(CTV Winnipeg)

The Canadian Press