A remarkable mouse study suggests that repairing the brain’s ability to withstand Alzheimer’s disease may be as important as removing amyloid
For more than a century, Alzheimer’s disease has been viewed as a one-way journey. Treatments might temporarily ease symptoms or, more recently, modestly slow the disease, but the idea that an already impaired brain could recover has remained largely out of reach.
A new study offers a striking reason for cautious hope. Researchers reported that an experimental drug called P7C3-A20 restored memory and learning in mice with advanced Alzheimer’s-like disease, while also improving several forms of damage associated with the condition.
This does not mean that scientists have reversed Alzheimer’s disease in people. The treatment has not yet been tested in human patients, and findings in genetically engineered mice frequently fail to translate into effective human therapies. Nevertheless, this may be one of the more encouraging Alzheimer’s studies in recent years, not only because of what happened, but because of how the treatment appears to work.
Rather than concentrating exclusively on removing amyloid plaques, P7C3-A20 attempts to restore the brain’s underlying ability to produce energy, repair damage and withstand cellular stress. In other words, it may help the brain become more resilient to the biological assault of Alzheimer’s disease.
