It sounds too good to be true, but researchers at Lancaster University in England may have stumbled upon a cure for Alzheimer’s Disease. The findings were published in Brain Research, and were also explained in an article published by the University.
Alzheimer’s is the most common form of Dementia, and it affects nearly 44 million people – 5.3 million of whom reside in the U.S. – according to Alzheimer’s Disease International.
Lead researcher Professor Christian Holscher said the treatment “holds clear promise of being developed into a new treatment for chronic neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.”
In exploring drugs that treat other maladies, researchers decided to test the growth factors GLP-1, GIP and glucagon, also referred to as “triple agonist” drugs. The reasoning behind the approach is that growth factor signaling is impaired in the brains of people who suffer from Alzheimer’s, according to a statement from the university.
Researchers applied the drugs to mice that had the same mutated genes that cause Alzheimer’s in humans. Mice that underwent the treatment were tested in a maze. The findings indicated that the drug increased memory and learning function, reduced the amount of Amyloid plaque in the brain that is associated with Alzheimer’s, slowed down the rate of nerve cell loss in the brain, and reduced inflammation.
Although other drugs used to treat diabetes have shown limited success in reducing Amyloid plaque – you may have seen commercials for the drug Victoza – none has shown a difference in cognitive levels. And this new treatment is yet to be tested in humans.
Still, this new “triple receptor” treatment shows promise “as a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s 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,” according to Professor Holscher. It is certainly hoped that the promise this treatment has shown in mice will carry over to humans.