Alzheimer's disease reversed

Two available drugs have improved Alzheimer's symptoms in humans

Svetlana Maslova, Hi-tech+

Scientists noted a significant improvement in cognitive functions in patients while taking one of the two medications. The effectiveness is explained by the fact that the drugs target the blocking of the APOE4 protein associated with high risks of Alzheimer's disease.

Many previous studies have shown that targeting beta-amyloid and tau proteins does not lead to significant improvements in neurodegeneration, so the team from the University of Colorado began to look for drugs that block the action of the protein apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4), which is encoded by a gene variant with a high risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

Scientists tested almost 600 different compounds, and then found out how their intake affects the health of patients who were diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease during treatment. These observations led them to the antidepressant imipramine and the neuroleptic olanzapine — patients with medication showed a significant improvement in cognitive functions, according to a press release from Researchers Find Two FDA-Approved Drugs That Curb Symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease.

"In some patients, symptoms decreased to mild cognitive impairment, and in people with initially mild impairments, they returned to normal," commented the author of the work Huntington Potter.

Both drugs have only one effect in common — they block AROE4 for the formation of amyloid proteins in the brain, which are known to form toxic plaques and lead to the death of neurons. None of the other antidepressants or neuroleptics had these properties.

Article by Johnson et al. Imipramine and olanzapine block ApoE4-catalyzed polymerization of Aß and show evidence of improving Alzheimer's disease cognition published in the journal Alzheimer's Research & Therapy – VM.

Now scientists plan to evaluate the effect of imipramine (it has fewer side effects) on mouse models and, if successful, continue research among people with different stages of progression of Alzheimer's disease.

Currently, it is very difficult to determine Alzheimer's disease at an early stage, so it is rarely possible to start prevention of an incurable disease in time. Perhaps, in the very near future, a conventional MRI study will be able to solve the problem — scientists have developed an AI that detects dementia and even the stage of the disease by scanning the brain.

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