The Burke Neurological Institute (BNI) has received a five-year award expected to total $45 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to launch a large-scale, multi-center clinical trial to evaluate benfotiamine, a synthetic precursor of thiamine (vitamin B1), as a potentially effective therapy for mild Alzheimer”™s disease (AD) or mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
According to the White Plains-based BNI, this follow-up trial will expand on previous work that suggested high levels of benfotiamine significantly slowed the rate of functional decline in participants with mild cognitive impairment or early AD.
Previous work by BNI/Weill Cornell Medicine researcher Dr. Gary E. Gibson, who will be a leader of the upcoming clinical trial, suggested that reduction in glucose metabolism is due to a decline in thiamine-dependent processes. BNI explained that by using multiple experimental models, Gibson and his colleagues have shown that increasing thiamine to very high levels via benfotiamine was protective against Alzheimer”™s-like symptoms.
“I am particularly excited about this trial because it will determine how relevant these decades of research are to the treatment of Alzheimer”™s disease,” Gibson said. “If our hypothesis is correct, we will advance an exciting investigative clinical treatment pathway relevant for millions of patients, and with potential advantages in safety and value.”
Photo: Dr. Gary E. Gibson
