My timeline taking montelukast

Larrytherunner

This February marks nine years that I have been taking the anti-inflammatory asthma drug montelukast multiple times a day for treating the extreme mental fatigue that I was experiencing. Here is a timeline of events.

1995 - My mother was diagnosed with early stage Alzheimers.

2009 - I retired from the the Department of Veteran Affairs and moved from Atlanta, GA to the country of Ghana.

2015 - Early 2015, I began feeling extreme mental fatigue affecting my concentration. I saw a medical doctor in Ghana who ran all kinds of lab tests which came out normal. I was concerned that I was starting down the same Alzheimer's path as my mother, who also started experiencing mental fatigue in the beginning.

2016 - I discovered Dr Ludwig Aigner's research in Austria treating aging animal models with montelukast and showing that montelukast reduced the swelling and over-activation of microglia immune cells in their brains while also strengthening the blood-brain barrier. He concluded that montelukast could possibly be used to treat Alzheimers and other age related dementias.  I tried it and discovered that taking 10 mg once a day was ineffective, but when I took 10 mg twice a day, within a week, the extreme mental fatigue completely went away. I was lucky that I could buy it here in Ghana without a prescription.

2016 - In February I made my first post on Alzconnected.org, which was about montelukast.

2017 - I started taking 10 mg 3 times a day after finding generic montelukast in Ghana, which costs much less than the brand name version I was buying.

2018 - Intelgenx, a small Canadian medical technology company, began  a clinical trial using their version of montelukast to treat mild to moderate Alzheimers under the supervision of Health Canada, Canada's equivalent of the FDA. It was halted in 2020 due to Covid-19 and funding problems.

2019 - I started the website www.montelukast-repurposed.org about using montelukast to treat Alzheimer's and other medical conditions.

2019 - Emory University started a FDA montelukast Alzheimers clinical trial with 150 participants but was halted in early 2020 due to Covid-19.

2020 - In May my mother passed away in Atlanta, GA with late stage Alzheimers. I could not attend the funeral due to Covid travel restrictions.

2022 - In January Intelgenx started a new montelukast Alzheimers trial with new funding and dosing up to 30 mg twice a day.

2022 - The Emory montelukast Alzheimers FDA trial restarted with a smaller group of 32 participants. The original trial had 150 participants.

2023 - The Karolinska Institute in Sweden announced in March 2023 that they will conduct a clinical trial using the Intelgenx version of montelukast to treat Parkinson's disease. You may have heard of the Karolinska Institute through its involvement in awarding the Nobel prizes.

2023 - Emory submitted its results to the FDA in November 2023. The preliminary results, posted on clinicaltrials.org, showed that the placebo group improved in cognitive scores and in amyloid and tau lab tests, and the montelukast treated group declined in cognitive scores and lab tests. This suggested to me that there had been tampering taking place in the trial. I had wonder how a group of untreated placebo participants could show cognitive improvement over a one year period. I suspect the montelukast and placebo medications were switched between the two groups in the beginning. The principle investigator left soon after the trial and got a position at a university with connections to Biogen. You can read more on my website (January 2024 article).

2024 - In January 2024 I emailed the FDA Office of Scientific Investigation about the results of the Emory trial. In February they replied that they were considering starting an investigation. They informed me that I would have to inquire through the Freedom of Information Act to receive any further information. Because of all the connections Biogen has with FDA officials, I have doubts there will be a thorough investigation.

2024 - In May 2024 Intelgenx announced that they have completed their trial. Also in May Intelgenx filed for court protection from creditors under Canadian law. Their largest creditor Atai Life Sciences eventually took over Intelgenx before the end of 2024.

2024 - In July 2024 Intelgenx made a short announcement that preliminary trial data showed that participants who received the highest dosage of 30 mg twice a day had a statistically significant improvement in cognitive skills compared to the placebo group.

https://alzheimersnewstoday.com/news/montelukast-oral-film-aids-cognition-mild-moderate-alzheimers/

2025 - So far Atai Life Sciences has remained silent about if or when they will come up with the final results of the Intelgenx montelukast clinical trial. My concern is that a major pharmaceutical player may offer money under the table to Atai insiders to stop the process of coming up with the final results. 

I believe there are some players in the pharmaceutical industry that are working to prevent montelukast from being approved for Alzheimer's. I believe that montelukast will eventually be proved to be more effective, safer and a lot cheaper than the newly approved drugs.

MN Chickadee

Thanks for the update Larry. It's interesting that the idea of brain inflammation is getting mentioned so often. Researchers think the GLP-1s may treat Alzeheimer's, presumably because they are also anti-inflammatory. But there's so much money wrapped up in that class of drugs right now. They can keep getting approved for new conditions it treats beyond obesity/diabetes and renew their patents so they don't become generic and stay extremely expensive. It's sad money drives so much of our scientific research. Way too much wealth at stake. Please update us as you learn more.

White Crane

thanks for the update,.

Russinator

I agree with White Crane: thanks for the update. I found it very interesting.