Drug For Alzheimer's, Parkinson's And MS Shows Promise

Featured Article Academic Journal Main Category: Alzheimer's / Dementia Also Included In: Parkinson's Disease;Multiple Sclerosis;Neurology / Neuroscience Article Date: 25 Jul 2012 - 3:00 PDT

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A pre-clinical study due to be published this week in the Journal of Neuroscience shows one of the drugs stopped mice bred to have Alzheimer's from developing the full-blown disease.

The new class of drugs, developed at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in the US, approaches the treatment of Alzheimer's differently to the ones currently being tested to prevent beta amyloid plaques in the brain. While the plaques are known to indicate Alzheimer's, nobody has yet proved that they cause the disease.

A press statement released on Tuesday reveals Northwestern has already been issued with patents to cover the drugs and has licensed commercial development to a biotech company that has just completed the first phase 1 clinical trial which tests safety in humans.

The new class of drugs, currently known as MW151 and MW189, target a particular type of brain inflammation that is a common denominator in MS, Alzheimer's and Parkinsons, and also in traumatic brain injury and stroke.

More and more scientists are coming round to the idea that inflammation plays a major role in the progressive damage that characterizes these chronic neurological diseases and brain injuries.

The results suggest giving the drug before Alzheimer's symptoms are readily apparent may be a promising therapeutic strategy.

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Drug For Alzheimer's, Parkinson's And MS Shows Promise