London: A pioneering new treatment, in which a protein is used to attack amyloid plaques, the substance blamed for damaging the brain in Alzheimer’s disease, is being carried out in the UK for the first time.

A small trial involving four patients was recently carried out at London’s Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. The treatment uses an artificial antibody which attaches itself the to the amyloid plaque and destroys it. There are now plans for a larger test

Recently thousands of UK Alzheimer’s patients were told they were not eligible for drugs – including Aricept, Exelon and Reminyl, which cost as little as £2.50 a day and can dramatically delay the disease’s progress.

Patients will be scanned by doctors at Hammersmith Hospital using a new technique which allows amyloid plaque in the brain to be seen for the first time.

Professor Martin Rossor, a neurologist at the hospital, who is heading the trial, said although it was early days the results indicated that Alzheimer’s may be controlled in the same way as other diseases.