Study on an innovative natural drug for Alzheimer's disease reported as a sham

• Main Author: Editor Group of Traditional Medicine Research
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hong Kong Gold Orchid Science and Technology Co., Limited 2020-09-01
• Series: Traditional Medicine Research
• Subjects: alzheimer's disease
• Online Access: https://www.tmrjournals.com/plus/view.php?aid=1522

The number of patients with dementia is estimated to be as high as 24 million and is predicted to double every 20 years, i.e., by 2040, leading to a tremendous financial disease burden. Therefore, we urgently need to identify drugs that can prevent, delay the onset, slow the progression, or improve the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Drug development for AD has proven to be extremely difficult. A study by Geng Meiyu’s team from the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with Shanghai Green Valley Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., “Sodium oligomannate therapeutically remodels gut microbiota and suppresses gut bacterial amino acid-shaped neuroinflammation to inhibit Alzheimer ’s disease progression,” published in Cell Research on 6 September 2019, revealed the mechanism underlying the inhibitory effect of the novel drug GV-971, a manno-oligosaccharides diacid extracted from the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) seaweed, on AD. Moreover, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 36-week long phase III clinical trial of GV-971 was successfully completed. On November 2, 2019, the National Medical Products Administration approved the marketing application for GV-971, manufactured by Shanghai Green Valley Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., for treatment of AD. Shanghai Green Valley Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. also manufactures the anti-cancer Chinese medicine, China Ganoderma lucidum essence. Advertisements of China Ganoderma lucidum essence claimed to have a killing rate of 93.3% against lung cancer cell lines, 94.6% against leukemia cell lines, 95.7% against gastric cancer cell lines, and 94.1% against colon cancer cell lines, with an overall response rate of 97% in clinical settings; these inflated numbers caused widespread controversy in China.