A drug created to treat type 2 diabetes could be used to fight Alzheimer\u2019s disease, say scientists who found that the medicine significantly reversed memory loss in mice. The research, published in the journal Brain Research, could bring substantial improvements in the treatment of Alzheimer\u2019s disease through the use of a drug originally created to treat type 2 diabetes. The treatment \u201cholds clear promise of being developed into a new treatment for chronic neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer\u2019s disease,\u201d said Professor Christian Holscher from Lancaster University in the UK.<\/p>\n
Alzheimer\u2019s disease is the most common cause of dementia and the numbers are expected to rise to two million people in the UK by 2051 according to Alzheimer\u2019s Society, who part- funded the research. Although the benefits of these \u2018triple agonist\u2019 drugs have so far only been found in mice, other studies with existing diabetes drugs such as liraglutide have shown real promise for people with Alzheimer\u2019s, so further development of this work is crucial. This is the first time that a triple receptor drug has been used which acts in multiple ways to protect the brain from degeneration.<\/p>\n
It combines GLP-1, GIP and Glucagon which are all growth factors. Problems with growth factor signalling have been shown to be impaired in the brains of Alzheimer\u2019s patients. The study used APP\/PS1 mice, which are transgenic mice that express human mutated genes that cause Alzheimer\u2019s. Those genes have been found in people who have a form of Alzheimer\u2019s that can be inherited. Aged transgenic mice in the advanced stages of neurodegeneration were treated. In a maze test, learning and memory formation were much improved by the drug which also enhanced levels of a brain growth factor which protects nerve cell functioning. It also reduced the amount of amyloid plaques in the brain linked with Alzheimer\u2019s, chronic inflammation and oxidative stress.<\/p>\n
The drug also slowed down the rate of nerve cell loss. \u201cThese very promising outcomes demonstrate the efficacy of these novel multiple receptor drugs that originally were developed to treat type 2 diabetes but have shown consistent neuro- protective effects in several studies,\u201d said Holscher. \u201cClinical studies with an older version of this drug type already showed very promising results in people with Alzheimer\u2019s disease or with mood disorders,\u201d he said. \u201cHere we show that a novel triple receptor drug shows promise as a potential treatment for Alzheimer\u2019s but further dose-response tests and direct comparisons with other drugs have to be conducted in order to evaluate if this new drugs is superior to previous ones,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A drug created to treat type 2 diabetes could be used to fight Alzheimer\u2019s disease, say scientists who found that the medicine significantly reversed memory loss in mice. The research, published in the journal Brain Research, could bring substantial improvements in the treatment of Alzheimer\u2019s disease through the use of a drug originally created to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16795,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16794"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16796,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16794\/revisions\/16796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}