Scots dementia expert predicts there will be cure for Alzheimer's in 10 years

Professor Craig Ritchie also believes things will move so quickly that advanced cases of dementia in the future could almost be eradicated.

A Scots dementia expert predicts there will be a cure for Alzheimer’s in 10 years. Professor Craig Ritchie also believes things will move so quickly that advanced cases of dementia in the future could almost be eradicated.

He said: “I don’t just expect a cure for Alzheimer’s disease in 10 years, I also expect that, with early detection, managing risk factors and powerful new treatments, advanced Alzheimer’s disease – dementia – will be very rare.”

The news will bring hope to thousands but in order for that to happen, people will need to be diagnosed much quicker. About 90,000 people in Scotland have dementia, 65 per cent of those in care homes live with it and it’s among the leading causes of death in the country.

By 2031, it’s estimated it will cost the country £2.6billion- £2.9billion every year. Ritchie said: “We need a completely fresh start to Alzheimer’s detection and treatment. We must be realistic. The new treatments being developed aren’t for people with moderate or advanced Alzheimer’s but for a much younger generation, who need to be brain disease aware much earlier.

“The most recent research reveals Alzheimer’s can start decades before symptoms appear, so we need to approach our research and clinical trials from a much younger perspective.”

He added: “We’re now recruiting younger volunteers as we need to look at it as a brain disease that you could potentially have from your 50s or even younger, but it could take many years before symptoms emerge. We aim to identify those who have it and then give them treatments that will clear amyloid protein from the brain.

“Scottish Brain Sciences needs volunteers from Scotland who are 55-plus and aware of the classic ‘Why did I go upstairs?’ moments, mild cognitive impairment or early Alzheimer’s dementia. These are the people who will prove the science – which is that brain disease can be treated before it becomes a severe dementia.”

And while people tend to be better informed about Alzheimer’s, Ritchie said: “The trouble is the approach to Alzheimer’s treatments has barely changed in decades. Medical students are still being taught about Alzheimer’s in exactly the same way I was in the 80s.

“In 1997-98, I helped establish one of the first memory clinics in the world in Melbourne and yet there was very little difference between that and the one where I worked in Edinburgh in 2022. Medicine moves on and we have to be ready to embrace it in the best possible way, which in this case is encouraging younger volunteers to get involved in clinical trials.

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“My wife is an HIV specialist, a role which didn’t exist in the 80s, because up until then HIV didn’t exist. The speciality was created by doctors coming from broader specialities like infectious diseases to develop a dedicated and new specialism. This led to the development of really effective treatments – so much so that Aids is a very rare and mainly avoidable outcome from people living with HIV.

“The same should be the case in the Alzheimer’s field, where we should create a new speciality bringing together neurologists, psychiatrists and others under the banner of brain health and neurodegenerative medicine – we need a new and dedicated speciality. That specialism would then move the conversation to a brain disease that starts in midlife, which could then be prevented from developing into later stage disease – currently described as ‘dementia’.”

But he points out there is a need to be realistic. “This new generation of treatments will have some quite serious side effects and they won’t suit everyone, and specialists will closely monitor patients in their care,” he said. “But these are the first generation and more treatments – many being trialled now – will follow; second, third and fourth generations that will be even more targeted, safer and more effective. But you can’t have these second and later generation treatments without learning from the first generation.”

In July, Brain Sciences Scotland became the first clinical site in Europe to deliver a clinical trial of a new active immunotherapy vaccine aimed at preventing or slowing the progression of Alzheimer’s. The study will test whether immunising people in the earliest stages of the condition, who do not yet show signs of memory or other cognitive problems, can prevent or delay the onset of symptoms.

Ritchie added: “We’re focusing on a big plan, where those already in advanced stages of the disease get the right care and at the same time we create a new specialty in brain health and neurodegenerative medicine.”

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