Developing new treatments for diseases can be a tedious and frustrating process for scientists. Usually, newly developed drugs can't work in the expected way, which leads to a dead end because they can't achieve the expected effect. But at other times, drugs developed for one purpose are even more effective in treating completely different diseases.
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In the past, this happened to drugs such as prednisone, which was originally used to treat inflammatory diseases, but actually helped to treat the symptoms of Parkinson's disease. These are called transformable drugs. Another example occurred in 2017, when researchers realized that drugs for treating type 2 diabetes may be beneficial to patients with Alzheimer's disease.
At that time, a new class of drugs was originally developed to treat type 2 diabetes, but it showed great benefits in mice with Alzheimer's disease. These drugs are classified as "triple agonists" (because they work in three ways), and they were tested in mice developed to express genes associated with Alzheimer's disease. These animals, which have shown many symptoms associated with the disease - including memory loss and learning difficulties - have greatly improved their brain function after treatment.
Professor Christian holscher, lead researcher of the study, said: "this treatment clearly has the potential to develop into a new treatment for chronic neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease." Relevant research reports have been published in brain research.
According to the study, this three effect treatment is thought to fight Alzheimer's disease by protecting nerve cells, reducing amyloid plaques in the brain (related to Alzheimer's disease) and reducing inflammation while slowing the degradation of nerve cells. The treated mice showed significant improvement in learning and memory formation.
It is good news to find a potential new treatment for devastating diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, but the fact that the drug was originally used to treat type 2 diabetes is not just a coincidence. Type 2 diabetes has been associated with Alzheimer's disease in the past, and the two often go hand in hand in the elderly. "Insulin desensitization has also been observed in the brain of Alzheimer's disease. This desensitization may play a role in the development of neurodegenerative diseases because insulin is a growth factor with neuroprotective properties," the researchers explained in a press release
Based on the study of mice in 2017, British researchers began human trials of a drug called liraglutide in 2021. It is currently licensed for use in diabetes, so it is safer to use it in human clinical trials. This time drugs have to go through less drug development because they already did when they were developed for type 2 diabetes. The trial of liraglutide in the UK did not show a large amount of evidence that liraglutide may cure Alzheimer's disease, but it may slow down the impact.
Another study involving drugs for diabetes was conducted in Korea last year. Clinical trials of drugs called dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitors have shown that they can help slow the decline of cognitive ability in patients with dementia. Drugs like januvia, onglyza, tradjenta and nesina are used to lower blood sugar levels. They were tested in patients with dementia because lower blood glucose levels can lead to less accumulation of cerebral plaques, a side effect of dementia.
Philhyu Lee, senior research author of the study and medical doctor of Yonsei University School of medicine in Seoul, South Korea, said in a statement: "patients with diabetes have been shown to have a higher risk of Alzheimer's disease, which may be due to high blood glucose levels, which is similar to amyloid in the brain β Related to the accumulation of. Our study not only showed that people taking dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors to reduce blood glucose levels had less amyloid in the brain as a whole, but also showed lower amyloid levels in areas of the brain involved in Alzheimer's disease. "
Now, a new study in mice shows that using the spinal fluid of young animals and young mice can help improve the memory of aging mice, which is a promising result. Dr. Tony Wyss Coray of Stanford University pointed out as early as 2014 that injecting older animals with the blood of younger animals can reverse some of the effects of aging. He helped oversee Dr tal IRAM's study, which hypothesized that injecting spinal fluid from young mice into older mice could help solve the problem of memory loss. A report published last week showed that IRAM found that giving cerebrospinal fluid infusion to young mice for a week could help memory in older mice.
The study points out that this will be difficult to translate into an option for human trials, but it is not impossible. As more research goes on, steps are taken every year to try and fight dementia and Alzheimer's disease.