A new study finds that the anti-inflammatory drug canakinumab (Ilaris) didn’t lower the risk of frailty in people with atherosclerosis.
Frailty, a common condition in older adults, can increase their risk for adverse outcomes. Some experts think that inflammation plays a role in a person’s risk for frailty, so researchers led by a team at Brigham and Women’s Hospital sought to see whether the medication could reduce the risk for frailty. Atherosclerosis is defined as hardening or thickening of the arteries.
The study was published on Nov. 5 in the journal Aging Cell.
As part of the study, the researchers looked at data from the Canakinumab Anti-Inflammatory Thrombosis Outcomes Study, or CANTOS. The study offered insights on self-reported functional ability and cardiovascular events among the almost 10,000 people involved.
The CANTOS trial previously showed that 150 milligrams of canakinumab was superior to placebo at preventing adverse cardiac events. The study was a double-blind trial involving people whose conditions were stable, yet they had a history of myocardial infarction. They took either canakinumab or placebo every three months between 2011 and 2017. The mean age of participants was 63.
During the trial’s 5-year span, 1,080 of the participants became frail. Additionally, canakinumab didn’t have an effect on preventing cardiovascular events in the people studied.
The authors said that it’s possible that frailty could develop whether or not canakinumab affected any pathways in the participants.
“It’s still unclear whether inflammation is a bystander or a causal factor in the development of frailty,” Ariela Orkaby, MD, one of the authors, said in a statement. “More randomized trials with anti-inflammatory medications will help understand their role in preventing frailty and functional decline in older adults.”
