A new class of drugs are able to slow

down the progression of alzheimer in

mice
The new 'allosteric ligands' of the M1 muscarinic receptor improve cognitive
function and increase the life expectancy of mice with terminal alzheimer's.

Alzheimer's is a neurodegenerative disease, that is to say, caused by a progressive

destruction of the brain neurons, that today they already suffer about 30
million people in the whole planet. A disease that is the most common type of
dementia and for which there is no cure. In fact, there is also no treatment
capable of slowing its progression. However, researchers at the University of
Leicester (UK) could have developed a new class of drug that can improve
symptoms of cognitive impairment associated with the disease and even stop
the progression of Alzheimer's, thus enabling an increase in hope of the lives of
those affected.

As Andrew Tobin, director of the international research published in the Journal of

Clinical Investigation ", explains "We have treated mice with a new type of drug,
and what we have seen is these drugs are not only able to improve the symptoms of
brain degeneration, case of cognitive impairment, but may also increase the life
expectancy of these animals in terminal phase. Thus, our work opens the door to the
investigation of new drugs that treat the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease and, in
addition, slow the progression of the disease.

Effective and safe

To carry out the study, the authors used an animal model - mice - which were infected
with a prion to develop the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease in humans. Or what is the
same, so that its brain neurons died progressively until causing the death of the animal.

As Andrew Tobin points out, "In our four-year work, we have used mice whose brain
cells, in a manner similar to that of alzheimer's disease, died progressively. And what
our project has done is to focus on a specific brain protein that appears to be involved in
Alzheimer's disease and therefore could be a potential target for new drugs. "

Our work opens the door to the design of new drugs that treat the symptoms of
Alzheimer's disease and slow its progression.

Specifically, the protein in which the study focused is the M1 muscarinic receptor, one
of the five human receptors for the neurotransmitter acetylcholine and which is already
known to be involved in central nervous system functions related to memory and
learning. Thus, the authors administered to mice a new type of drugs, dubbed as
'allosteric ligands', specifically to activate the M1 muscarinic receptor. And what
they observed was that animals not only experienced an improvement in their cognitive
symptoms, but also lived longer - including those that, given the cumulative effects of
neurodegeneration, were already in a terminal phase.

As the research director points out, "what we have found is a new class of drugs that act
on a protein in the brain called the M1 muscarinic receptor. And the activation of this
protein receptor improves cognitive function in mice with progressive cerebral
neurodegeneration. Moreover, when the drug is given daily can also increase life
expectancy.

In conclusion, and in the opinion of the authors, the new results open the door to the
design of new drugs to improve cognition and increase the life expectancy of patients
with Alzheimer's disease. Not surprisingly, our research describes molecules that can
reverse memory loss and slow the progression of neurodegeneration in a way that
confirms the potential of these drugs in Alzheimer's disease in humans, because the new
'allosteric ligands' are much more selective than previous drugs, so did not cause
any adverse effects in the treated mice in the study.

As Andrew Tobin concluded, "this study provides important information about

how this protein is a viable therapeutic target in the treatment of diseases
associated with the progressive death of brain cells. And this is of great importance
to society, because the options for treating Alzheimer's are very limited: we do not
have a cure and the current treatments are focused only on the relief of some of the
symptoms.

Publicado 26th December 2016 por Jorge Garca