A team of American scientists from the Salk Institute for Biological Research in California have published a study that talks about the most common symptom of Alzheimer’s disease – memory loss.
Scientists have discovered several mechanisms that allow an experimental drug to reverse memory loss. So far, the experiment was carried out only on mice, but in the future, the drug can be used to treat humans, experts say.
The scientists explained that for their research they used the drug CMS121, which is a synthetic version of a chemical called fisetin, which is found naturally in fruits and vegetables.
In previous studies, this drug has shown good effectiveness in affecting age-related metabolic processes in the brain and protecting against degeneration associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
In the new work, the researchers turned to mice with Alzheimer’s disease who had been receiving daily doses of CMS121 from nine months of age. This is equivalent to how disease naturally develops in humans.
Three months after the start of the experiment, the mice were tested for memory and behavior, and then the results were compared with the results of the control group in which all the rodents were healthy.
Alzheimer’s mice that were treated with CMS121 performed similarly to healthy controls. These results were also compared to mice with Alzheimer’s disease that were not receiving any medication. The mice that took CMS121 were much smarter.
To understand what enabled the early mice to improve their memory and attention span, the scientists analyzed the number of specific molecules in the brains of three different groups. In doing so, they found that the mice displayed several key differences related to the metabolism of fatty molecules in the brain called lipids.
The analysis showed that this process, called lipid peroxidation, was enhanced, compared with the other two groups, in sick mice that were not on the drug.
Further research showed that CMS121 appears to inhibit lipid peroxidation by decreasing key lipid-producing molecules. This prompted the team to analyze the amount of these molecules in the brains of deceased Alzheimer’s patients.
It turned out that these people have higher amounts of these molecules than healthy people from the control group.
This indicates that the molecule may indeed be a target to be targeted to treat Alzheimer’s disease. — concluded scientists.
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