4 Common Medicines Have Reversed Alzheimer’s in Mice

In this study, scientists at IRB Barcelona led by Dr. Aloy have characterized three stages of Alzheimer’s disease, namely initial, intermediate, and advanced.

For each of these stages, they have analyzed the behavior of the animals, studied the effects on the brain (specifically the hippocampus at the tissue level), and performed a molecular analysis to measure gene expression and protein levels.

The approach adopted has allowed them to describe the development of the disease at a level of detail hitherto unknown and also compare it with healthy aging.

“What we have observed is that, although Alzheimer’s disease shares some features of accelerated ageing, it is also affected by totally different ageing processes,” says Dr. Aloy. “This disease is caused by the abnormal accumulation of certain proteins, and we have seen that, in some cases, this is not caused by overproduction but by an error in their removal,” he adds.

Chemical Checker: detection of the most promising molecules

Having characterized the disease, the scientists used the Chemical Checker, a computational tool developed by the same research group to find drugs already on the market with the capacity to reverse the effects at the cellular level.

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This tool has allowed them to identify a series of possible candidates, which were tested in various mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease.

Four drugs—two non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, dexketoprofen and etodolac, along with two anti-hypertensives, penbutolol and bendroflumethiazide, proved effective at reversing the disease and neutralizing symptoms in these mice. They published the study in Genome Medicine.

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“Epidemiological studies already indicated that people who regularly take antiinflammatories show a lower incidence of Alzheimer’s disease, but this had not been correlated with a specific medication or mechanism.

“The results that we are publishing are most promising, and we hope that further research can be done on them because they could give rise to a paradigm shift in the treatment of this disease,” says Dr. Aloy.

Early diagnosis of the disease

In addition to paving new avenues of research for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, the characterization of the distinct stages of this condition published in this study favors early diagnosis.

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Diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease at an early stage, when damage to the brain is still minimal, is one of the main research focuses to tackle this condition and to reduce symptoms.

Source: Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona)