Etanercept in Alzheimer disease

Cytokine alterations and cognitive impairment in major depressive disorder: From putative mechanisms to novel treatment targets

“…Adalimumab, a monoclonal anti-TNF-α antibody has been found to improve full scale, verbal and performance IQ in an observational study of 15 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (Raftery et al, 2012). Efficacy of another TNF-α inhibitoretanercept has been studied in Alzheimer's disease (Tobinick, 2012); however, a recent placebocontrolled, double-blind, phase 2 trial of subcutaneous etanercept demonstrated no significant changes in cognition, behaviour and global functioning (Butchart et al, 2015). Preclinical evidence also indicates that toclizumab, which is a monoclonal antibody inhibiting IL-6 signalling, might improve spatial memory and learning in Alzheimer's disease animal model (Elcioglu et al, 2016).…”

An unsound AAN Practice Advisory on poststroke etanercept

“…Likewise, these authors refer to a longterm trial [19] in which 500 times the total dose of etanercept given to poststroke patients, 50 mg administered weekly for 264 consecutive weeks, generated 0.03 serious events per subject year. Likewise, the recent subcutaneous etanercept trial for Alzheimer's disease reported no adverse events [20] during 50 mg weekly for 24 weeks, i.e. again a 40-fold higher total dose.…”

Cytokine Therapies in Neurological Disease

“…A phase II randomized clinical trial of subcutaneous etanercept in AD established that this drug is well tolerated in a 24-week study, although there were no changes in cognitive, behavioral, or global function measured over this period [54]. Previously, an open-label pilot study enrolled 15 patients with AD in a 6-month open-label perispinal administration of etanercept [55].…”