Empowered Patient Podcast

Dr. Jose Luchsinger, Vice Chair for Clinical and Epidemiologic Research at Columbia University, is leading a phase 2 clinical trial of a prodrug Benfo that aims to raise the level of thiamine in the brain to improve memory and function in people with early Alzheimer's disease. This effort is based on research showing that Alzheimer's is associated with impaired thiamine processing in the brain, even if thiamine levels in the blood are normal. The phase 2 clinical trial for the drug is testing the ability to overcome the mishandling of thiamine in the brain by patients with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia with evidence of amyloid.   Jose explains, "So this approach is based on decades of study by Dr. Gary Gibson, who’s at the Burke Institute in New York and Cornell University in New York. What he has found, particularly in animal models of Alzheimer’s disease, is that these animals have memory problems that are related to the ability to process thiamine in the brain, which is a key vitamin that is