Four commonly used medications reverse Alzheimer's disease in mice


Date:
October 27, 2021
Source:
Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona)
Summary:
Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia in Western
societies and it is estimated that 24 million people worldwide have
this condition. Researchers have managed to reverse the symptoms
of Alzheimer's disease in mice by administering drugs currently
used to treat hypertension and inflammation in humans.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia in Western
societies and it is estimated that 24 million people worldwide have this condition. ICREA researcher Dr. Patrick Aloy, head of the Structural Bioinformatics and Network Biology lab at IRB Barcelona, has headed a
study that has managed to reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease
in mice by administering drugs currently used to treat hypertension and inflammation in humans.


==========================================================================
In this study, the scientists led by Dr. Aloy have characterised
three stages of Alzheimer's disease, namely initial, intermediate and
advanced. For each of these stages, they have analysed the behaviour
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 ageing. "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 characterised 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.

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 and two anti-hypertensives, proved effective at reversing the disease and neutralising symptoms in
these mice.

"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 characterisation
of the distinct stages of this condition published in this study favours
early diagnosis. 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.

This work has been done in collaboration with the RIKEN Center for
Brain Science and the Institute of Brain Science, both in Japan, and
the Biostatistics/Bioinformatics and also Proteomics core facility at
IRB Barcelona. The study was funded by the European Research Council,
the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the Government of
Catalonia.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Institute_for_Research_in_Biomedicine_(IRB_Barcelona).

Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Eduardo Pauls, Sergi Bayod, Li'dia Mateo, Vi'ctor Alcalde,
Teresa Juan-
Blanco, Marta Sa'nchez-Soto, Takaomi C. Saido, Takashi Saito,
Antoni Berrenguer-Llergo, Camille Stephan-Otto Attolini,
Marina Gay, Eliandre de Oliveira, Miquel Duran-Frigola, Patrick
Aloy. Identification and drug- induced reversion of molecular
signatures of Alzheimer's disease onset and progression in
AppNL-G-F, AppNL-F, and 3xTg-AD mouse models. Genome Medicine,
2021; 13 (1) DOI: 10.1186/s13073-021-00983-y ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/10/211027122112.htm

--- up 7 weeks, 6 days, 8 hours, 25 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1:317/3)