Although it seems that all scientists seek, in one way or another, to guide their careers to achieve the desired end of curing cancer, the truth is that there are many diseases that unfortunately harm even many more human beings such as diabetes.
In the Lancaster University (United Kingdom) have a complete team of researchers working on the development of new drugs capable, precisely, of curing diabetes. Apparently and as has been revealed, while working on the development of a new product against type 2 diabetes, they have found a solution that would serve to treat Alzheimer’s.
This medicine to treat type 2 diabetes could be used as a cure for Alzheimer’s
Before ‘launching the bells to the flight’ or anything like that, tell you that, since we are talking about laboratory tests, the truth is that for now the only thing that has been achieved is to create a drug capable of significantly reverse memory loss in miceTo begin testing with humans, there is still a lot of work to be done, so for this product to reach the market, we can still speak of years.
At least, the truth is that we are one step closer to finding a cure for a disease like Alzheimer’s, one of those neurodegenerative diseases that, according to the latest studies carried out by different means, have increased considerably, especially in Western countries. A very significant fact is that, while in 2015 there were 48 million cases of dementia globally, today 7.5 million more cases are diagnosed each year.
With this in mind, it is not surprising that, according to health authorities, Alzheimer’s has been listed as the most common cause of dementia since, today, it has more than 30 million patients, a figure that, according to WHO itself, can grow to 53 million cases diagnosed in just 30 years.
What is Alzheimer’s and how does it occur?
According to experts, it appears that Alzheimer’s occurs due to a very abnormal accumulation of beta amyloid and tau proteins in a person’s brain. This accumulation causes the deformation of neurofibrillary tangles and toxic senile plaques, something that in the end results in serious damage to the proper functioning of the brain.
Returning to the project developed by researchers at the University of Lancaster, it appears that type 2 diabetes is a high risk factor for suffering from Alzheimer’s, being, in turn, closely related to the progression of the disease. This is so because, the inability to produce or use insulin is directly linked to a degenerative process in the patient’s brain that is common in both conditions.
This drug is able to protect the brain of a patient in different ways
As explained by the Dr. Doug Brown, Director of Research and Development of the Alzheimer’s Society:
With no new treatments in nearly 15 years, we must find new ways to combat Alzheimer’s. It is 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 faster to get promising new drugs to people who need them.
To test this type of solution, the team of researchers responsible for the development of this project used APP / PS1 mice. This type of transgenic rodents, we speak of a type of mouse that expresses mutated human genes that are responsible for Alzheimer’s disease. Among the tests carried out, it should be noted that the small animals were treated with a drug with “triple agonist” activity that has been shown to have ability to protect the brain in different ways: improving learning and memory formation, protecting nerve cells, reducing the amount of amyloid plaques, decreasing chronic inflammation and oxidative stress, and slowing the loss of nerve cells.
More information: Lancaster University
