The U.S. National Institutes of Health classifies Alzheimer’s disease as a progressive and irreversible disorder of the brain that results in the slow deterioration of an individual’s memory and thinking skills to the point where he or she can not carry out even the simplest of tasks.
Advertisement
While many researchers are focused on the plaques that build up on the brain and cause dementia, America’s Salk Institute for Biological Studies has taken a different tack and is working on an experimental drug that targets Alzheimer’s major risk factor – old age.
“While most drugs developed in the past 20 years target the amyloid plaque deposits in the brain (which are a hallmark of the disease), none have proven effective in the clinic”, says Schubert, senior author of the study. The researchers said these wide anti-aging effects were unexpected, and the older J147-treated mice looked biologically young.
An elixir of youth may be on the horizon after an experimental Alzheimer’s drug had a surprise side-effect of making old mice “young”.
Or, as they put it in the full paper, the drug is essentially preventing certain metabolic changes that come standard with aging, from leaking blood vessels to memory loss. Mice that were given this novel treatment showed significant improvements in memory and cognition, as well as healthier blood vessels in the brain and other physiological features.
Starting small, researchers measured the expression of all genes in the brain, as well as over 500 tiny molecules involved with metabolism in the blood and brains of three mice test groups (no big deal).
The mice that were given the medication showed fewer signs of Alzheimer’s disease. However, this form of the disease comprises only about 1 percent of Alzheimer’s cases. The mice were divided into three groups: one group of young mice, one group of old mice, and one group of old mice that had received J147 treatments as they aged. The J147-treated mice also had more robust motor movements.
While all is well when testing mice to prove the drug’s benefits, Currais and Schubert note the importance of eventually moving on to human clinical trials for Alzheimer’s disease. In general, the older mice treated with J147 seemed to have metabolism and gene expression similar to that of younger mice, with less brain inflammation, a lower level of oxidized fatty acids in the brain, and increased energy metabolism. Schubert said the remaining cases are still associated with old age.
The Salk researchers are set to continue their study by conducting trials on humans in 2016.
Advertisement
This study was supported by the Salk Institute Pioneer Fund Postdoctoral Scholar Award and the Salk Nomis Fellowship Award, fellowships from the Hewitt Foundation and Bundy Foundation, and grants from the Burns Foundation and NIH.
