
A Diabetes Drug Has 'Significantly Reversed Memory Loss' in Mice With Alzheimer's
A drug developed for type 2 diabetes has "significantly reversed memory loss" in mice with Alzheimer's disease, and researchers now want to test it on humans.
The treatment is exciting for scientists because it works by protecting the brain cells attacked by Alzheimer's disease in three separate ways, rather than relying on a single approach.
And seeing as the drug has already been tested and approved for use in humans, it's something that could hit the market a lot faster than other experimental treatment options.
The results have only been seen in mice so far, but the drug "holds clear promise of being developed into a new treatment for chronic neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease," said senior author Christian Hölscher of Lancaster University in the UK.
"With no new treatments in nearly 15 years, we need to find new ways of tackling Alzheimer's," said Doug Brown from UK organisation, Alzheimer's Society.
"It's imperative that we explore whether drugs developed to treat other conditions can benefit people with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. This approach to research could make it much quicker to get promising new drugs to the people who need them."
Previous research had already established a link between type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer's - type 2 diabetes is a risk factor for Alzheimer's, and it also appears to make the disease progress more rapidly.
This could be a result of insulin not getting to the cells properly - insulin is a growth factor which is known to protect brain cells, and insulin resistance has been observed in Alzheimer's disea
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