In a new study, researchers found that Alzheimer’s disease drug candidates known as CMS121 and J147 improve memory and slow the degeneration of brain cells.
They found that these compounds can also slow aging in healthy brains, blocking the damage to brain cells that normally occurs during aging and restoring the levels of specific molecules to those seen in younger brains.
The study suggests that these drug candidates may be useful for treating a broader array of conditions and points out new links between normal aging and Alzheimer’s disease.
The research was conducted by a team at the Salk Institute.
Old age is the biggest risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease—above the age of 65, a person’s risk of developing the disease doubles about every five years.
However, at a molecular level, scientists aren’t sure what occurs in the brain with aging that contributes to Alzheimer’s.
The contribution of old age-associated detrimental processes to the disease has been largely neglected in Alzheimer’s disease drug discovery.
Previously, the team has developed CMS121 and J147, variants of plant compounds with medicinal properties.
Both compounds tested positive for their ability to keep neurons alive when exposed to cellular forms of stress related to aging and Alzheimer’s disease.
Since then, the researchers have used the drug candidates to treat Alzheimer’s in animal models of the disease.
This study further validated these two compounds not only as Alzheimer’s drug candidates but also as potentially more widely useful for their anti-aging effects.
One author of the study is Pamela Maher, a senior staff scientist at Salk.
The study is published in the journal eLife.
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