Will Alzheimer's cure an anti-cancer drug?
Cancer drug proved effective in Alzheimer's disease
Copper news
American researchers have found that an existing cancer drug on the market may prove to be an effective remedy for Alzheimer's disease, The Wall Street Journal reports (New Attack on Alzheimer's).
The development of Alzheimer's disease is associated with the accumulation of beta-amyloid protein in the central nervous system, which is also produced in healthy people, but is quickly destroyed and excreted. The destruction of beta-amyloid is facilitated by another protein – apolipoprotein E (ApoE), the mutation of which is the most significant of the known genetic risk factors for Alzheimer's disease.
In this regard, researchers from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland drew attention to a drug for the treatment of the cutaneous form of T-cell lymphoma bexarotene, sold in the United States under the name Targretin, which indirectly activates the ApoE gene and, consequently, increases the production of this protein.
In 2009, researcher Gary Landreth instructed one of his graduate students to give a certain amount of bexarotene to mice suffering from the mouse analogue of Alzheimer's disease. Three days later, the employee reported that most of the amyloid plaques in the animals' brains had disappeared.
"It was unprecedented. At first I thought she wasn't herself," Landreth admitted.
The experiment was repeated on more than 100 mice with pronounced symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. As follows from the publication in the journal Science, shortly after the appointment of bexarotene, thinking, sense of smell and social behavior significantly improved in mice, which was confirmed in standard tests.
The improvement persisted for at least three months after taking the drug (after that, animal monitoring was discontinued, since the fact that the effect was not transient could be considered proven).
It also turned out that under the influence of bexarotene, the level of the soluble form of beta-amyloid in the brain of mice decreased by a quarter within six hours. This effect persisted for three days.
As noted by an expert on Alzheimer's disease from the University of Pittsburgh, Rada Koldamova, who did not participate in the study, since the safety of using bexarotene has already been confirmed in cancer patients, it is worth trying this medicine on patients with dementia. Landreth confirmed that he intends to do this in the coming weeks.
Chemist Carl Wagner from the University of Arizona, who was involved in the Landret project, synthesized several analogues of bexarotene, the effect of which on beta-amyloid may be stronger and more narrowly focused. This remains to be confirmed in further studies.
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13.02.2012