Type 2 Diabetes Drug Study Showed Improvement In Alzheimer’s Patients

Highlights:

• Diabetes treating drugs by its triple mode of action significantly improved memory loss in a study carried out in Alzheimer's disease by a research team of Lancaster University in the U.K.
• The novel approach reduces the problems in growth factor signaling which is found to be the cause of brain degeneration in Alzheimer's patients.
• Promises effective therapy in patients with a chronic neurodegenerative disease by delivering constant neuroprotective effects.

Study about Alzheimer's response to Diabetes drugs

Study published in Brain Research showed that the drugs which are developed to treat type 2 diabetes might offer considerable improvement in treating Alzheimer's disease (AD). The drug used in the study further demonstrated a significant reversal of memory loss by its triple mode of action. Benefits of the triple agonist drugs are found in the clinical study, carried out in transgenic mice by using a maze test.

The cognitive function involving learning and memory found to be improved by the drug which also exhibits certain neuroprotective properties.

These include the following:

1. Protects the nerve cell by increasing the levels of growth factor in brain
2. Amyloid plaques in the brain associated with Alzheimer's are decreased
3. Decreasing oxidative stress and chronic inflammation
4. Delaying the rate of neuronal loss

Triple Receptor Drugs

Drugs used in the study act at various pathways helps in protecting the brain against degeneration. It is found that problems related to growth factors (GLP-1, GIP, and Glucagon) results in the impairment in the brain of Alzheimer's disease patients. Diabetes drugs used in the clinical study showed enhanced levels of brain growth factor resulting in a reversal of memory loss by exhibiting steady neuroprotective effects.

Liraglutide a diabetic drug also showed better results in spatial memory with an overall reduced plaque in the brain. The study showed that liraglutide was not only beneficial in early stages of an AD, but also in later stages. This was proven when the effects are compared with liraglutide treated mice with saline-treated mice. However, the study requires further deeper research in human by studying dose-response and comparison with other drugs making it a potential treatment for Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia that results in problems in thinking, memory, and behavior. It occurs gradually at increasing age and the majority of people with Alzheimer's are above 65 and the disease gets worse over time. In the United States alone, nearly 200,000 people are diagnosed with early onset of Alzheimer's disease and estimated to be the six leading cause of death.

Currently, there is no cure for Alzheimer's but there are various on-going researches worldwide aimed at delaying the onset, prevention, and treatment of the disease.

What are the Symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease?

  The symptoms of Alzheimer's includes

• Serious memory loss
• Confusion about events, place and time
• Behavioural changes
• Mood disorders
• Difficulty in walking and speaking
• Illogical suspicion
• Disorientation

References :

1. Liraglutide can reverse memory impairment, synaptic loss and reduce plaque load in aged APP/PS1 mice, a model of Alzheimer's disease. - (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23973293)
2. What Is Alzheimer's? - (https://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_what_is_alzheimers.asp)

Source: Medindia