Longevity & AgingArrowhead's under-the-skin RNAi shot cuts spinal fluid tau by 73% in healthy volunteers
Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals reports early results for ARO-MAPT, an RNA interference drug that turns down production of tau, the protein that builds up abnormally in Alzheimer's disease and related tauopathies. Given as an injection under the skin, it appeared to cross the blood-brain barrier in healthy volunteers. At the highest dose, average tau in spinal fluid fell 73% at day 105, which is 90 days after the last dose, and one participant reached 85%. The drug was generally well tolerated, with mostly mild side effects such as injection-site reactions, and no serious adverse events were reported. The durability suggests dosing could be as infrequent as every three months. The big caveat is that these data come only from healthy people. Whether lowering tau helps cognition or slows Alzheimer's progression remains untested, and patient data are expected in 2027.
