Sarah Ford | September 19, 2013
Diabetes Drug Improves Memory in Mice That Were Engineered to Show Features of Alzheimer’s Disease
A commonly prescribed diabetes drug could improve memory and reverse the build-up of plaques on the brain linked to Alzheimer’s, according to research published in Neuropharmacology.
Results from the Alzheimer’s Society-funded study, led by Professor Christian Hölscher who is now at Lancaster University, show that the drug liraglutide might be able to reverse some of the damage caused by Alzheimer’s disease, even in the later stages of the condition.
Mice with late-stage Alzheimer’s given the drug performed significantly better on an object recognition test and their brains showed a 30 per cent reduction in the build-up of toxic plaques.
Most drugs that show promising effects in dementia do so at an early stage of the disease; these results from a more advanced stage of Alzheimer’s will provide hope that this drug could be of benefit for people in the moderate to severe stages too.
This study demonstrates the drug’s potential to reverse the changes in the brain caused by the condition.
Source: BrightFocus
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