The London couple at the heart of ‘first-of-its-kind’ Alzheimer’s treatment | News UK

When Penny forgot about a lunch date to meet her daughter’s in-laws for the first time, her husband of 45-years knew it was time to go to the doctors.

Denis Horton, 75, was familiar with the signs of memory loss. His friend’s wife had developed dementia just five years earlier, so he was attuned to what could be put down to ageing, and what couldn’t.

Penny, 74, is a ‘voracious reader’ and attentive grandma to her three grandchildren.

She was organised and on top of everyone and everything in her life, having had a long career in the social services before her retirement in 2019.

But in 2019, she started to struggle to remember dates, directions in familiar areas and exciting plans.

She became confused while travelling to a London restaurant to meet her daughter’s partner’s family for the first time

‘That’s when I knew to get her checked out,’ Denis said.

What followed was plenty of tests, different doctors and trips to clinics across London.

At first, medics at the Acton Memory Clinic were unsure whether Penny had any memory loss problems. But eventually, after blood and cognitive testing, she was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimers.

‘It was difficult to come to terms with,’ Denis said. ‘Especially because we were, and still are, very happy together.’

The couple had met at school in Grimsby, when Denis was 18 and Penny was 16. They had moved to west London, for work and raised four children together.

They are regular theatre-goers, as well as avid walkers, making the reality of their future hard to swallow.

Denis said: ‘Things aren’t as they were, with Penny repeatedly asking a lot of the same questions. But I remind myself to be patient, and aside fromt that we remain a happy couple going about our normal lives.’

They immeadiately launched into action finding the best course of treatment to try and delay the disease from developing.

The answer lay in numerous trials, and after researching what would be the best course of action for them, they came across University College Hospital’s pioneering clinical study.

Brain inflammation is a feature of Alzheimer’s progression, and scientists are exploring whether treating this and improving the brain’s natural repair processes helps slow the disease.

This is the first-of-its-kind approach to treatment, and led by Professor Catherine Mummery, they are developing ImmunoBrain’s new antibody.

And results so far are promising. There are no adverse side effects and researchers have observed trends which would indicate improvement.

Professor Mummery said: ‘Without volunteers we have no trials, and without trials we have no progress. At the moment, we are making real progress in the study of Alzheimer’s—and that is down to people like [Penny].

‘There is still a clear need for new treatments that can address the underlying biology of Alzheimer’s disease.

‘These findings suggest that working with the immune system in a different way may offer a promising new direction. While this research is still at an early stage, it is encouraging to see signals that support further study.’

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