PATIENTS in Huddersfield will be among the first to test a new drug to combat Alzheimer's disease.
A major clinical trial which could provide a breakthrough in treatment has just been launched.
About 400 patients from across the UK who have been diagnosed with the condition will take part in the £1.4m study.
It is hoped that a drug will be able to dissolve tangles of proteins in the brain which correlate with dementia, the most common form of the disease.
In Scotland, where tests began, the trial is being conducted at the Royal Cornhill Hospital in Aberdeen and the Ugie Hospital in Peterhead.
Other centres involved in the trial are in Huddersfield, Birmingham, Cardiff, Stoke, Bury St Edmunds, London and Ipswich.
The drug has been developed by Aberdeen University spin-off company TauRX Therapeutics, which is headed by Prof Claude Wischik.
Prof Wischik, who has spent 20 years researching Alzheimer's disease, said: "Our drug is different to existing treatments for Alzheimer's, some of which mask the progression of the disease.
"We want to see if it can modify the course of the disease, following promising results in laboratory tests," he added.
Patients taking part in the study must have a clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and contact with another person who can monitor the effects of the medication.
They will be given a brain scan and will be assessed by their local study centre on eight occasions.
.TEXT: * Alzheimer's disease is a progressive condition which damages areas of the brain involved in memory, intelligence, judgement, language skills and behaviour. * It accounts for 60% of the irreversible cases of dementia, a condition which affects more than 750,000 people in the UK.
* The brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease have neuro- fibrillary tangles, which occur within brain cells and are formed from abnormal deposits of a stringy protein called tau.
This results in connections being destroyed within the brain.
