Aducanumab: evidence from clinical trial data and controversies

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause for dementia worldwide. Until recently, all approved treatments for AD were symptomatic and not disease modifying. On 7 June 2021, the US FDA approved aducanumab, a human IgG1 anti-Aβ monoclonal antibody selective for Aβ aggregates, as the first disease-modifying treatment for AD. Aducanumab is approved in the United States for the treatment of mild cognitive impairment or mild-dementia stage of AD. In this Editorial, we review the trial data for aducanumab in the treatment of AD and the controversies that its approval has generated.

Keywords

• β-amyloid
• aducanumab
• alzheimer’s disease
• amyloid-related imaging abnormalities
• anti-aβ monoclonal antibody
• dementia
• neurofibrillary tangles
• tau proteins