An Existing Drug for Multiple Sclerosis Might Be Useful for Alzheimer's Too, Study Finds
An existing medication for multiple sclerosis could possibly be retooled into a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, new research suggests. A team of scientists has found evidence in mice and human brain tissue that the drug ponesimod can reduce the inflammation and toxic amyloid plaques found in those with Alzheimer’s. More research will be needed to test out this theory, however.
The research was conducted by scientists from the University of Kentucky. They theorized that a particular receptor found in brain cells called microglia might play a role in Alzheimer’s and possibly other neurodegenerative diseases.
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“The clearance of those proteins is an important target for Alzheimer’s disease therapy,” said lead author Zhihui Zhu in a statement from the university. “In our study, we reprogrammed microglia into neuron-protective cells that clean up toxic proteins in the brain, reduce Alzheimer’s neuroinflammatory pathology, and improve memory in the mouse model.”
The study’s findings were published last month in the journal eBioMedicine.
Of course, mice and lab experiments are only the starting point for showing that a treatment could do the same in human patients. Since ponesimod is already used for MS, that could speed up the process of studying its use in Alzheimer’s disease. The authors also note that there are no currently approved drugs that increase the clearance of amyloid by microglia. So the work done here could very well lead to a new mechanism for treating Alzheimer’s down the road.
In recent years, there have been several approvals of drugs that reduce amyloid plaques in those with Alzheimer’s. These drugs are expected to have a modest effect at best on people’s symptoms for the time being. But a combination of different treatment approaches might someday lead to substantial improvements in people’s prognosis, experts have hoped.
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