Frontotemporal dementia is a serious brain disease that often starts early—usually between ages 40 and 65.
It affects the front and side parts of the brain and leads to big changes in personality, behavior, speaking, and memory.
Unlike Alzheimer’s, which usually begins later in life, this type of dementia hits people in the prime of their lives.
In some patients, frontotemporal dementia is linked to a gene mutation that stops brain cells from making a protein called progranulin. Scientists don’t fully understand everything progranulin does, but they know that not having enough of it is closely tied to the disease.
Now, scientists at the University of Kentucky have found a surprising way to get around this mutation. Working with other researchers, they discovered that a type of antibiotic known as aminoglycosides might help brain cells make the missing protein again.
This is big news, because there are currently no treatments that can stop or reverse frontotemporal dementia—or any form of dementia, for that matter.
The researchers focused on two aminoglycoside antibiotics, Gentamicin and G418. When they tested these drugs on brain cells with the progranulin mutation, something amazing happened. The antibiotics helped the cells “read past” the genetic mistake, so they could make the full, working version of the progranulin protein.
After being treated with Gentamicin or G418, the brain cells were able to make about 50 to 60 percent of the normal amount of progranulin. This is a hopeful sign that the treatment could help restore some brain function.
But the research isn’t ready for use in people yet. The next step is to try the treatment in mice with the same mutation, to see if it works in a living body. Scientists also want to change the drugs to make them safer and more effective. Gentamicin, for example, is already used in hospitals but has strong side effects that make it risky for long-term use.
The study was led by Dr. Haining Zhu and published in the journal Human Molecular Genetics. It offers hope that with more research, doctors could one day offer treatment to people living with frontotemporal dementia.
If these results hold up in future studies, it could lead to new medicines that help the brain make the proteins it needs—and give patients and families new hope.
If you care about brain health, please read studies about Vitamin B9 deficiency linked to higher dementia risk, and cranberries could help boost memory.
For more health information, please see recent studies about heartburn drugs that could increase risk of dementia, and results showing this MIND diet may protect your cognitive function, prevent dementia.
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