Category: Dementia

The drug healed synaptic connections in the brain and memories were partially restored.

A new drinkable cocktail of drugs provides hope for stopping the progression of Alzheimer’s.

An old antibiotic — called Suprax — has been shown to reverse the memory problems linked to Alzheimer’s.

Now that the study on mice has been successful, the team hope to go on and test it on Alzheimer’s patients.

There are currently no drugs that effectively treat Alzheimer’s, only therapies that may help slow cognitive decline and reduce symptoms.

The team — based at Yale University — have been searching for compounds that will interfere with the first stages of the disease.

Professor Stephen Strittmatter, study co-author, said:

“We wanted to find molecules that might have a therapeutic effect on this network.”

After screening thousands of different compounds, they came across an old antibiotic, known as Suprax.

This seemed to have the desired effect of stopping Alzheimer’s in its tracks.

The tests on mice showed that the compound healed synaptic connections in the brain and their memories were partially restored.

The next step is to check that the compound is not toxic before human trials can begin.

The study was published in the journal Cell Reports (Gunther et al., 2019).

The common drink contains compounds called phenylindanes that may help protect against dementia.

Drinking coffee could protect against both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, new research suggests.

The study looked at compounds in coffee called phenylindanes, which may help protect against dementia.

Higher levels of phenylindanes typically make coffee taste more bitter.

Dr Donald Weaver, study co-author, said:

“Coffee consumption does seem to have some correlation to a decreased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.

But we wanted to investigate why that is — which compounds are involved and how they may impact age-related cognitive decline.”

The study examined how phenylindanes interact with two proteins that are critical to the development of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

The results showed that phenylindanes inhibit both beta amyloid and tau proteins.

The researchers also compared dark roast, light roast and decaffeinated coffees.

It found that dark roasts had the highest quantities of phenylindanes.

Caffeine, though, made no difference, explained Dr Ross Mancini, the study’s first author:

“The caffeinated and de-caffeinated dark roast both had identical potencies in our initial experimental tests.

So we observed early on that its protective effect could not be due to caffeine.”

Dr Weaver said it is a major advantage that coffee is a natural crop:

“Mother Nature is a much better chemist than we are and Mother Nature is able to make these compounds.

If you have a complicated compound, it’s nicer to grow it in a crop, harvest the crop, grind the crop out and extract it than try to make it.”

More work will be required before therapies can be developed, Dr Weaver said:

“What this study does is take the epidemiological evidence and try to refine it and to demonstrate that there are indeed components within coffee that are beneficial to warding off cognitive decline.

It’s interesting but are we suggesting that coffee is a cure?

Absolutely not.”

The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience (Mancini et al., 2018).

The simple self-treatment that prevents Alzheimer’s disease.

A simple daily regimen of the common painkiller ibuprofen along with dietary adjustments could prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, new research concludes.

Ibuprofen is a widely available nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory that does not require a prescription.

The drug, along with adopting the Mediterranean diet and a healthy intake of antioxidants, could stop the disease in its tracks.

Until recently the problem has been identifying the disease early enough to take action.

Alzheimer’s is thought to begin around 10 years before any cognitive symptoms are noticeable.

The author of the new research, Dr Patrick McGeer (and colleagues), have developed a simple saliva test that can predict the onset of Alzheimer’s.

Dr Patrick McGeer, study co-author, explained:

“Knowing that the prevalence of clinical Alzheimer’s Disease commences at age 65, we recommend that people get tested ten years before, at age 55, when the onset of Alzheimer’s would typically begin.

If they exhibit elevated Abeta 42 levels then, that is the time to begin taking daily ibuprofen to ward off the disease.

Abeta 42 refers to a protein secreted in the saliva that is elevated in people at risk of developing Alzheimer’s.

It could provide the vital clue to start treatment early, Dr McGeer said:

“Unfortunately, most clinical trials to date have focused on patients whose cognitive deficits are already mild to severe, and when the therapeutic opportunities in this late stage of the disease are minimal.

Consequently, every therapeutic trial has failed to arrest the disease’s progression.

Our discovery is a game changer.

We now have a simple test that can indicate if a person is fated to develop Alzheimer’s disease long before it begins to develop. Individuals can prevent that from happening through a simple solution that requires no prescription or visit to a doctor.

This is a true breakthrough since it points in a direction where AD can eventually be eliminated.”

The study was published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease (McGeer & McGeer, 2018).