Two new studies show promise for Alzheimer’s treatments
When you’re helping an aging parent manage doctors’ appointments, medications, or even the activities of daily life, you don’t need any reminders about the struggles of Alzheimer’s disease. You’re acutely aware of its effects on memory, personality and more.
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Yet, initiatives like Alzheimer’s Awareness Month in November, sponsored by the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America (AFA), help show support and raise funds for research. More than 6.2 million Americans currently suffer from Alzheimer’s, according to the AFA.
As caregivers, medical professionals and others sport the color teal to show their support for patients this month, researchers continue to make promising inroads toward new treatments.
Lithium compounds may restore memory functions
Lithium, or a lack of it, in the brain could play a role in the development of Alzheimer’s, according to a study at Harvard Medical School, published in Nature. Lithium that occurs naturally in the brain protects it from neurodegeneration and helps brain cells function as they should. Lithium depletion is one of the earliest markers of Alzheimer’s, the scientists discovered. This happens even before symptoms arise.
In their studies on mice, the scientists discovered that a novel lithium compound, which avoids binding to amyloid plaques the way lithium does in Alzheimer’s patients, helped restore memory in mice.
“The idea that lithium deficiency could be a cause of Alzheimer’s disease is new and suggests a different therapeutic approach,” said senior author Bruce Yankner, professor of genetics and neurology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS, in an article published by Harvard Medical School.
What this means for Alzheimer’s patients
Using lithium for treatments of disorders like bipolar and depression is not unusual. But these compounds must be delivered in such high doses that they can be toxic to older adults.
While it’s too early to say that lithium orotate (the compound used in the study) could represent a successful treatment, Yankner told Harvard, “You have to be careful about extrapolating from mouse models, and you never know until you try it in a controlled human clinical trial … But so far the results are very encouraging.”
Reducing clumps and tangles
Harvard’s Yankner was the first researcher to discover the role amyloid beta plays in Alzheimer’s in the 1990s. Over the decades, researchers have built on this knowledge.
In a separate study led by scientists at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and the West China Hospital Sichuan University (WCHSU), researchers discovered that, by using nanoparticles, they could inject drugs that crossed the blood-brain-barrier in mice afflicted with dementia symptoms. The nanoparticles successfully swept many of the amyloid-beta clumps out of the mice brains, restoring memory function.
What this means for Alzheimer’s patients
The blood-brain-barrier helps keep toxins – and medicines – out of the brain, which has been a significant challenge in trying to treat Alzheimer’s.
“When toxic species such as amyloid-beta accumulate, disease progresses. But once the vasculature is able to function again, it starts clearing amyloid-beta and other harmful molecules, allowing the whole system to recover its balance,” IBEC bioengineer Giuseppe Battaglia told ScienceAlert.com.
Again, researchers emphasized that it’s too early to tell if the findings will translate to humans.
These studies, along with brain-mapping tools that deliver insights into the way aging affects the brain, offer hope for Alzheimer’s patients and their families.
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