In a study from Karolinska Institutet, scientists found mechanisms associated with a particular diabetes drug can also help to protect against Alzheimer’s disease.
The findings suggest that the drug’s target protein could be a new drug for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
Alzheimer’s disease is becoming increasingly common, but there are no drugs to affect the course of the disease and the development of new drugs is a slow, costly and complex process.
An alternative strategy is therefore to find already approved drugs that can prove efficacious against the disease and give them a new area of application.
Diabetes drugs have been put forward as possible candidates, but so far the studies that have tested diabetes drugs for Alzheimer’s disease have not produced convincing results.
In this study, researchers used genetic methods to study this more closely.
The team says genetic variants within or nearby the genes that encode a drug’s target proteins can cause physiological changes similar to the effects of the drug.
They utilized such variants to test the repurposing potential of already approved drugs.
The researchers began by identifying genetic variants that mimic the pharmacological effect of diabetes drugs, namely lowering blood glucose.
This was done through an analysis of data from over 300,000 participants in the UK Biobank register.
They found variants in two genes that together code for the target protein of a class of diabetes drugs called sulfonylureas.
The researchers validated these variants by showing their association with, amongst other phenomena, higher insulin release, lower type 2 diabetes risk and higher BMI, which is consistent with the drug’s effects.
The researchers then examined the link between the identified genetic variants and the risk for Alzheimer’s disease.
They did this by analyzing data collected previously from over 24,000 people with Alzheimer’s disease and 55,000 controls.
They found that the genetic variants in the sulfonylurea genes were linked to a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
The results suggest that the target protein of sulfonylureas, the KATP channel, maybe a therapeutic target for the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease
This protein is expressed in the pancreas, but also in the brain, and further studies are needed to fully understand the underlying biology.
If you care about diabetes, please read studies about new bandage for foot ulcers in people with diabetes, and low-carb diet may lower blood sugar in people with prediabetes.
For more information about Alzheimer’s, please see recent studies about nutrient that may hold the key to beating Alzheimer’s , and results showing nose picking could increase risk for Alzheimer’s and dementia.
The study was conducted by Bowen Tang et al and published in Neurology.
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