An Old Therapy Shown Effective for Alzheimer's

Mice genetically manipulated to over-produce beta-amyloid and develop sticky plaques in the brain--a major feature of Alzheimer's disease--showed a 51% reduction in plaques after treatment with a drug approved for human use decades ago.

The drug, Clioquinol, was last used in the 1970s, when it was linked to a rare neurologic disorder found only in Japan. Researchers speculate that the disorder was caused by rapid B12 depletion, a side effect they think they can prevent. In the current study, copper and zinc were found on the plaques in the mice brains. The mice given Clioquinol, which strips away those metals, showed a 51% reduction in plaques, compared to untreated mice. Depending on how advanced the disease is, the researchers believe the brain may heal and repair the damage if the plaque is somehow removed. Clioquinol is now being tested on 36 Alzheimer's patients, but the results will not be known for at least another 12 months.

The study was presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans (LA, USA) by Ashley Bush, M.D., scientific advisor to Prana Biotechnology Limited (Melbourne, Australia) and director of the Laboratory for Oxidation Biology in the Genetics and Aging Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, USA).Dr. Bush's discoveries relating to the role of metals and oxidative stress in neurologic disorders have opened up a new field of research in neuroscience.

"The drug was effective in the mice experiments not because it kills germs but because it binds two metals,” explained Dr. Bush. "In a third of the younger animals, it eliminated the plaques, even though the animals continued to overproduce beta-amyloid”.



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