Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) mefenamic acid reverses memory loss in Alzheimer’s disease-model mice.
Adam Rifkin stashed this in Medicine
Stashed in: Awesome, Alzheimer's, Inflammation, Memory!, Ray Kurzweil!
Using a known drug could expedite its time to be approved.
Anti inflammatory drug mefenamic acid completely reversed memory loss and brain inflammation in mice genetically engineered to develop symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and amyloid beta-induced memory loss, a team led by David Brough, PhD, from the University of Manchester has discovered.
The non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) drug targets an important inflammatory pathway called the NLRP3 inflammasome, which damages brain cells, according to Brough. This is the first time a drug has been shown to target this inflammatory pathway, highlighting its importance in the disease model, Brough said.
“Because this drug is already available and the toxicity and pharmacokinetics of the drug is known, the time for it to reach patients should, in theory, be shorter than if we were developing completely new drugs. We are now preparing applications to perform early phase II trials to determine a proof-of-concept that the molecules have an effect on neuroinflammation in humans.”
“There is experimental evidence now to strongly suggest that inflammation in the brain makes Alzheimer’s disease worse. Until now, no drug has been available to target this pathway, so we are very excited by this result.”
The research, funded by the Medical Research Council and the Alzheimer’s Society, paves the way for human trials that the team hopes to conduct in the future, but Brough cautions that more research is needed to identify its impact on humans and the long-term implications of its use.
Wikipedia says that so far NSAIDs have not checked out as a cure for Alzheimer's in humans: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mefenamic_acid (notes 18, 19, 20)
Right, this is a preliminary result that so far has only been demonstrated with mice.Â
More research is needed.Â
What's promising is that this is a known drug known to be safe for humans.Â
Its efficacy for humans with Alzheimer's remains to be determined.
1:26 AM Aug 21 2016