A groundbreaking study from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Canada has revealed that an experimental drug, GL-II-73, may have the ability to restore memory and repair brain damage caused by Alzheimer’s disease—at least in mice.
The findings, recently published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging, point to a promising new direction in Alzheimer’s treatment, with human trials expected to begin in 2025.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, affecting nearly 50 million people worldwide. It is a progressive brain disorder that leads to memory loss, confusion, and difficulty with thinking and reasoning.
As the disease advances, it causes damage to brain cells, making everyday tasks more difficult and greatly affecting patients and their families. Current treatments can only slow symptoms for a short time and do not stop or reverse the damage.
The new study was led by Dr. Etienne Sibille and Dr. Thomas Prevot, senior scientists at CAMH with over a decade of experience researching aging and cognitive disorders.
Over the past 12 years, their research has focused on understanding the root causes of cognitive decline and finding new ways to treat it. They discovered that certain pathways in the brain become especially weak in Alzheimer’s disease and may be the key to stopping its progression.
GL-II-73 is a lab-created compound that targets a specific part of the brain known as the hippocampus. This area plays a major role in learning and memory. Instead of going after beta-amyloid plaques—the sticky substances that build up in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s—GL-II-73 focuses on boosting GABA receptors.
These are proteins on nerve cells that help control brain activity. When these receptors aren’t working well, it can lead to poor memory and brain function.
To test the drug, scientists used mice that were genetically modified to develop signs of Alzheimer’s disease, including memory loss and brain cell damage. They divided the mice into two age groups to simulate early and late stages of the disease. Some mice received a single dose of the drug before memory tests, while others were given the drug daily for four weeks.
The results were striking. In younger mice with early-stage Alzheimer’s, just one dose of GL-II-73 was enough to restore their memory performance to the same level as healthy mice.
Even in older mice with more advanced disease, memory improved after weeks of treatment, though not as dramatically. Brain scans showed that the drug also helped repair connections between brain cells, which are essential for thinking and remembering.
These results suggest that GL-II-73 doesn’t just reduce symptoms—it may actually help heal the brain. That would be a major shift in Alzheimer’s treatment, which has mostly focused on slowing down decline rather than reversing it.
The drug also appears to have potential for treating other brain disorders like depression, epilepsy, and schizophrenia, where thinking and memory problems are common.
In 2019, CAMH helped launch a startup company called Damona Pharmaceuticals to develop GL-II-73 and similar drugs. The company has already received funding from major investors and approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin human trials. The first phase of clinical testing, which checks if the drug is safe for people, is set to start in early 2025.
Dr. Prevot emphasized the importance of early treatment: “The earlier we give GL-II-73, the better the results. But we also see improvement even in later stages, which gives hope to patients already affected.” Dr. Sibille added, “No current drug can restore memory or repair brain cells like this one. That makes it a potential game-changer.”
The study was funded by the Weston Brain Institute, a Canadian organization that supports research into brain health and aging. While these findings are still early and based on animal studies, the next step—testing in people—will be key to understanding if GL-II-73 can truly help those living with Alzheimer’s.
In summary, this study offers new hope that restoring memory and repairing the brain may one day be possible—not just slowing Alzheimer’s down, but actually turning back some of its damage. If results in humans are as promising as those in mice, GL-II-73 could become a major breakthrough in the fight against dementia.
If you care about Alzheimer’s disease, please read studies about the protective power of dietary antioxidants against Alzheimer’s, and eating habits linked to higher Alzheimer’s risk.
For more health information, please see recent studies that oral cannabis extract may help reduce Alzheimer’s symptoms, and Vitamin E may help prevent Parkinson’s disease.
The research findings can be found in Neurobiology of Aging.
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