A new drug could prove at least twice as effective in treating Alzheimer’s disease as current medications and significantly slow the progression of dementia, researchers say.

The research team at the University of Aberdeen concluded that the drug, Rember, slows progression of the disease by up to 81 per cent.

Sufferers taking the drug three times a day for 50 weeks showed a slower decline in blood flow to the parts of the memory that are vital to the memory.

Experts hailed the study as a major development in the fight against Alzheimer’s, which affects an estimated 350,000 people in Britain and more than 26 million people worldwide.

It is projected that the number suffering from the disease will leap to over 106 million by 2050.

Experts hailed the study as an important development in the fight against Alzheimer’s, which affects an estimated 350,000 people in Britain.

The drug is the first medication directly to attack the “tangles” that develop in the brains of those affected, the researchers said.

These tangles, made up of a protein known as tau, form inside nerve cells in the brain and impair concentration and memory. The tangles first destroy the nerve cells linked to memory and then destroy neurons in other parts of the brain as the disease progresses.

The study was among several pieces of research presented this week at the International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease in Chicago. Claude Wischik and his colleagues at the University of Aberdeen described the findings as unprecedented.

“We have demonstrated for the first time that it may be possible to arrest progression of the disease by targeting the tangles which are highly correlated with the disease,” Professor Wischik said. “This is the most significant development in the treatment of the tangles since Alois Alzheimer discovered them in 1907.”

The death of brain cells can start when people are in their fifties, and about half of people have developed memory problems by the time they are 65 and over, researchers say.

Professor Wischik’s team focused on 321 people with mild and moderate Alzheimer’s disease in Britain and Singapore. They were divided into four groups, three taking different doses of Rember and a fourth group taking a placebo.

Those taking a 60mg dose of Rember experienced an 81 per cent reduction in mental decline compared with the placebo group. Those taking Rember did not experience a significant decline in their mental function over 19 months, while those on the placebo got worse.

This makes the drug roughly twice as effective as existing treatments such as Aricept, which is only recommended on the NHS for patients with advanced Alzheimer’s disease.

Two drug companies recently mounted a successful legal challenge to uncover the basis of this recommendation by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), which campaigners say has denied a beneficial treatment to thousands of Alzheimer’s patients.

The researchers hope to carry out a final trial on Rember next year. If that is successful the drug could be available by 2012, Professor Wischik said.

Clive Ballard, head of research at the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “This first trial is potentially exciting.”

Jimmy Hardie, 72, from Boddam, Aberdeenshire, who had Alzheimer’s diagnosed in 2005, started on the Rember trial in 2006. His wife Dorothy, 69, said: “Two years ago, if Jimmy had gone to his shed he may have forgotten what he was about to do. Now he is able to plan, get the tools he needs and do the task.”

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