Experimental Alzheimer’s drug has anti-aging properties

A new study done by the researchers from Salk Institute in the United States has shown that an experimental drug aimed at fighting Alzheimer’s has the effect of slowing down aging in mice.

The study is the team’s embellishment of their past development of an experimental drug called J147, which works differently by targeting a major risk factor for Alzheimer’s – old age.

In their latest work, published in the journal Aging, the Salk researchers showed that this new drug candidate worked effectively in a mouse model of aging not generally used in Alzheimer’s disease studies. [Read more Scientists report significant breakthrough in anti-aging]

When the rodents were treated with J147, they showed improved memory and cognitive skills, while also displaying various enhancements in their psychological features and more robust blood vessels in the brain.

"Initially, the impetus was to test this drug in a novel animal model that was more similar to 99 percent of Alzheimer's cases," says Antonio Currais, the lead author and a member of Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory at Salk. [Read more What Causes Aging? Can The Process Be Slowed?]

"We did not predict we'd see this sort of anti-aging effect, but J147 made old mice look like they were young, based upon a number of physiological parameters."

Alzheimer’s is a chronic neurodegenerative disease. It is the most common cause of dementia. As mentioned earlier, age is one of the risk factors of Alzheimer’s and the disease starts slow but progresses with age. Plaques formed in the brain by beta-amyloid (pieces of protein) and neurofibrillary tangles causes the death of nerve cells in the brain.

People over the age of 70 are at a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Approximately 80 percent of people over the age of 85 are affected by this dreaded disease.

Alzheimer’s has been recently ranked as the third leading cause of death in the United States. An estimated 5.3 million Americans of all ages have Alzheimer’s.

In UK, around 800,000 people are affected by the disease.

"While most drugs developed in the past 20 years target the amyloid plaque deposits in the brain (which are a hallmark of the disease), none have proven effective in the clinic," says David R. Schubert, a senior author of the study and a professor and laboratory head of Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory at Salk. [Read more 15 Reasons Why You Should Eat More Fish]

Several years ago, Professor Schubert and his team started to approach Alzheimer’s treatment from a new angle. Instead of targeting amyloid plaque, they decided to pinpoint the primary risk factor for the condition, which is old age. For this, they synthesized J147 by utilizing cell-based screens against brain toxicities that are caused by old-age.

In their previous study, the researchers discovered that J147 could stop and reverse Alzheimer’s pathology in mice with a version of the inherited type of Alzheimer’s. However, the inherited form is responsible for only about 1% of Alzheimer’s cases. For the rest, the prime risk factor is old age. Therefore, they set out to explore the drug’s effects on a breed of mice that age very fast and experience a type of dementia that is very similar to the age-related dementia in humans. [একা খাওয়া আপনার স্বাস্থ্যের জন্য মারাত্মক ক্ষতিকর হতে পারে]

The researchers, in their latest work studied 3 groups of rapidly ageing mice. They used an extensive set of trials to calculate the expression of all genes in the brain, and more than 500 small molecules responsible for the metabolism in the blood and brains of these mice. Of the three groups of rapidly ageing mice: one set was young, one was old and the other set was old but was fed J147 as they age. [Read more Slow walking speed may be a sign of Alzheimer’s onset, say scientists]

The group that was given J147 performed better on tests for memory and other cognitive skill and displayed stronger motor movements. The brains of these mice also showed fewer pathological signs of Alzheimer’s disease.

The scientists also noticed another remarkable effect – J147 prevented microvessels in the brains of these mice from leaking blood.

"Damaged blood vessels are a common feature of aging in general, and in Alzheimer's, it is frequently much worse," says Currais.

The team believes that the only way to validate the clinical relevance of the study is to move J147 into human clinical trials for Alzheimer’s. They hope to start human trials next year.

Schubert said if it is proven safe, this anti-aging effect of J147 would help them in finding a way to slow aging.