Single pill is 'key' to beat Alzheimers
A SINGLE pill which prevents the damaging effects of inflammation in the brain could be the key to beating Alzheimer’s disease, it has been revealed.
Scientists have developed a new class of drug which can be taken orally and has the potent potential to treat a number of brain conditions including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and even multiple sclerosis.
In a major breakthrough the “one size fits all” tablet could be given to patients before the devastating memory changes of Alzheimer’s become too late to stop, giving precious extra months of clarity to sufferers.
Co-author Dr Linda Van Eldik, director of the Sanders-Brown Centre on Aging at the University of Kentucky, said: “The drug protected against the damage associated with learning and memory impairment. Giving this drug before Alzheimer’s memory changes are at a late stage may be a promising future approach to therapy.”
Alzheimer’s is currently incurable and what treatments are available can only help lessen the symptoms for a limited period.
The drug protected against the damage associated with learning and memory impairment
There are 820,000 people in the UK with dementia, more than half of whom have Alzheimer’s.
This figure is set to rise to more than a million in less than 10 years.
Experts believe that delaying dementia by five years would halve the number of deaths from the condition, saving 30,000 lives a year and would halve the £17billion spent on Alzheimer’s each year in Britain.
New results from animal studies have shown that two of the drugs, known as MW151 and MW189, work by blocking excess production of damaging immune system signalling molecules called pro-inflammatory cytokines
The research, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, showed how early treatment with MW151 prevented the development of full-blown Alzheimer’s in laboratory mice.
Scientists say the drugs, which have been patented by US scientists at Northwestern University in Chicago, offer a completely different way treating the disease to others currently being tested.
Martin Watterson, a professor of molecular pharmacology and biological chemistry at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School, said: “This could become part of a collection of drugs you could use to prevent the development of Alzheimer’s.”
These other drugs target the build-up of harmful toxic proteins called beta amyloid which form deposits in the brain, destroying cells and leading to the telltale memory loss and confusion which are hallmarks of Alzheimer’s.
In contrast, the new drugs are designed to stop inflammation disrupting wiring in the brain and killing neurons.
The pro-inflammatory cytokines cause the synapses, the connections between brain cells, to misfire.
This eventually leads to the whole organisation of the brain falling into disarray, like a failing computer, and neurons die.
Harmful inflammation plays a role in a wide range of other neurodegenerative disorders, raising the prospect of using the drug to treat many different conditions.
Early results suggest the drug could be effective against a host of devastating brain conditions including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis (MS), motor neurone disease, frontotemporal dementia, and complications from traumatic brain injury.
Mice genetically engineered to develop Alzheimer’s were given MW151 three times a week starting at six months of age.
A comparable stage in humans would be when a patient begins to experience mild mental decline.
At 11 months, by which time the mice should have developed full-blown Alzheimer’s, cytokine levels in the brains of the animals were found to be back to normal.
Their synapses were also working normally.
Untreated mice had abnormally high brain levels of cytokines and their synapses were misfiring.
A key advantage of the drug is that it can be swallowed as a pill, rather than being injected.
It also easily crosses the “blood brain barrier”, which stops toxic molecules - including drug treatments - from entering the brain.
Dr Anne Corbett, research manager at the Alzheimer’s Society said: “We have known for sometime that inflammation in the brain can be closely linked to dementia. This research represents an interesting potential new approach to treating inflammation.
“However,these findings are very preliminary and more research is needed to see if these drugs could definitely be a way of delaying or preventing dementia in people too.
“One in three people over 65 will develop dementia. It is vital that we continue to develop treatments that could improve the quality of life of people with the condition.”
Dr Simon Ridley, head of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “This research takes an interesting approach to tackling Alzheimer’s. Most current therapies in development target amyloid, whereas this drug appears to act by reducing the damage caused by activation of the immune system.
“We know that the immune system and inflammation are important players in Alzheimer’s disease and so it’s promising to see that this approach could hold benefits.
“These are early findings in mice and the drugs would need to be tested in humans before we could judge their true potential as a new treatment.”
