Norfolk man with Alzheimer’s sees results with new FDA-approved drug
(WAVY) — There are 164,000 people in Virginia age 65 and older who suffer from Alzheimer’s, but two new drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration could offer hope to those in the early stages.
10 On Your Side spoke with Norman Colpitts, 75, who has been on one of these new drugs for a year and a half.
It began with a gentle nudge from Norman’s wife, Susan.
“She said, ‘You know, you’ve been slipping a little bit, maybe you should get a test,'” Norman Colpitts said.
The former elementary school teacher lost both parents to dementia and was concerned. He decided to take a short memory test. After the results came back, his doctor suggested he take a more in-depth memory test. Then, his doctor suggested a PET (positron emission tomography) scan, which provides 3D images inside the body to show how organs and tissues function.
“He brought it up on the screen, and there was this kind of ink splotch,” Norman Colpitts said. “And he said that’s it. You got it.”
How did it make him feel?
“Life-changing’ is a little heavy, but that was kind of a slap in the face,” he said. “A wake-up call, I guess, more.”
Devastation quickly pivoted to hope, however. Two drugs approved by the FDA in 2023 and 2024 have both been proven to help slow the progression of memory loss.
“What these two medications do — these are anti-amyloid antibodies — so essentially, these are antibodies that cross our blood-brain barrier and they bind to those amyloid plaques,” said Dr. Hamid Okhravi, co-director of the Lawrence J. Goldrich Institute for Integrated NeuroHealth, Macon and Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University.
Amyloid plaques are those “ink splotches,” Norman Colpitts said he saw on his PET scan. By binding to those, the antibodies can remove them.
“These are quite powerful medications,” Okhravi said, “so by 18 months, a majority of people who take these medications, their brain is cleaned up.”
And when Norman Colpitts went in for his second PET scan?
“Shocking, the difference,” he said.
In some cases, the plaques are completely removed, and the patient can stop treatment. Amyloid plaques can form in the brain 20 years before showing any symptoms.
This new medication is groundbreaking, but Okhravi said it’s only approved for those in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. He urges early detection.
“Time is of the essence right now because we have medications that can change the trajectory of Alzheimer’s disease,” Okhravi said. “It’s just a matter of time.”
Said Norman Colpitts: “If you get it in that early stage, you've got a chance. If you wait, you’re not getting rid of that plaque. I feel incredibly lucky. That’s the takeaway from this thing. Lucky.”
The last drug to be approved by the FDA for Alzheimer’s was in 2003, and that was just to treat the symptoms.
Okhravi said the science is advancing so fast that we could see a vaccine to prevent Alzheimer’s sometime in the next 10 years.
To read more about the treatment, click here: https://www.fda.gov/drugs/news-events-human-drugs/fda-approves-treatment-adults-alzheimers-disease
For more about Dr. Hamid Okhravi, click here: https://q.evms.edu/pulse/archive/geriatricianhelpseducateaboutnewalzheimerstreatment.php
https://www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/difference-between-dementia-and-alzheimer-s
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
