Myra Solano Garcia in Upland, California, 2024. Garcia has been residing with Alzheimer’s illness and is taking one of many two authorized medicine in the marketplace to attempt to sluggish its signs.
Zaydee Sanchez for NPR / @zaydee.s
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Zaydee Sanchez for NPR / @zaydee.s
Learn half 1 of Jon’s story.
Medication cannot cease Alzheimer’s illness but. However typically, they’ll sluggish it down.
“Issues have simply plateaued,” says Myra Solano Garcia, 66, who developed reminiscence issues in her 50s, and was identified with Alzheimer’s 4 years in the past.
“I can drive. I can deal with the home, I can cook dinner,” she says, “all of that standard stuff that individuals do.”
Solano Garcia credit the drug donanemab, which she started taking as a part of a scientific trial on the College of Southern California.
The Meals and Drug Administration authorized the drug, now marketed as Kisunla, in July of 2024. It is one in all two medicine authorized since 2023 that may clear the mind of sticky amyloid plaques, one of many hallmarks of Alzheimer’s.
However there isn’t any strategy to know whether or not Kisunla is the explanation Solano Garcia can nonetheless accomplish that a lot.
“We do not have the power to say since you’ve taken the treatment, you have not declined,” says Dr. Lon Schneider, a professor at USC’s Keck College of Medication who oversaw the donanemab trial there.
Each Kisunla and the opposite authorized drug, Leqembi, have been proven to decelerate the psychological decline of Alzheimer’s by greater than 25%. However that is in a gaggle of sufferers—a person could do a lot better, or not be helped in any respect.
A life, interrupted
Solano Garcia grew up in New Jersey as a part of a Cuban-American household with a lot of singers. She studied piano and voice in school. As a younger grownup, she made singing her profession.
“I performed Maria in West Facet Story in summer time inventory,” she says. “I carried out at Carnegie Corridor and Fisher Corridor.”
Later, she moved to California and ran fundraising campaigns for faculties and universities.
It was in her early 50s that Solano Garcia started noticing issues along with her reminiscence.
A health care provider advised her she had attention-deficit/hyperactivity dysfunction, and for years she mistakenly thought that was the issue. However her reminiscence stored getting worse.
The turning level got here throughout COVID, when she began a brand new job.
“Three months in, I spotted I could not do the work,” she says. “I could not bear in mind the individuals’s names. I could not do the know-how.”
So Solano Garcia went to a neuropsychiatrist, who identified her with Alzheimer’s illness and referred her to docs at USC.
“They requested, ‘Would you prefer to be a part of the [donanemab] trial?’ and I mentioned, you wager I’d,” she says.
A mind cleared of plaques
Solano Garcia started getting in for month-to-month infusions, which she did not thoughts, and psychological exams, which she discovered irritating. When the trial ended, she opted to proceed taking the drug.
It hasn’t restored her reminiscence or pondering.
However Solano Garcia says she is not getting worse, no less than not in a short time. Additionally, scans present that the beta-amyloid plaques that had constructed up in her mind are principally gone.
Which means she might be able to cease getting infusions of Kisunla.
Research confirmed that it is protected for docs to “deal with till plaques are all the way down to regular after which cease, and maybe re-treat if plaques start to develop again,” USC’s Schneider says.
This feature is likely one of the key variations between Kisunla and Leqembi, which was administered all through its scientific trials.
So at USC, docs have a weekly assembly to debate how sufferers are doing on Kisunla, and whether or not they is perhaps candidates to cease taking the drug.
Solano Garcia says docs advised her she’s a type of sufferers.
“I am nearly achieved with the infusions, so it is actually thrilling,” she says.
Nonetheless no remedy
Solano Garcia is aware of her mind will not be what it as soon as was.
“I do not do properly with numbers,” she says. “I’ve issue remembering names. My poor husband, I overlook what he tells me.”
She’s not capable of return to her fundraising profession. And he or she has misplaced a lot of her command of the piano.
So Solano Garcia maintains her family, runs errands, and volunteers with the Alzheimer’s Affiliation.
She additionally makes a weekly go to to a neighborhood reminiscence care, the place she sings for, and with, the residents.
“We begin out with the Star Spangled Banner, and we do some film songs,” she says, and “Coming ‘Around the Mountain.”
Solano Garcia says she’s discovered lots from individuals within the unit, most of whom have superior Alzheimer’s.
“It is humbling as a result of they used to know all of this music,” she says. “And I do know that as time goes, I will be similar to them.”
However she’s hoping that Kisunla will postpone that day.
