New drug helps rescue memory loss in mice with Alzheimer's disease

Washington, July 15 (ANI): A drug similar to the one used in clinical trials for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis has been found to be effective against Alzheimer's disease, say researchers.

The drug called PMX205 has been found to prevent inflamed immune cells from gathering in brain regions with Alzheimer's lesions called amyloid plaques.

Cell inflammation in these areas accelerates neuron damage, exacerbating the disease.

"We used a multidisciplinary approach combining an understanding of immunology and neurobiology to uncover a completely different target than other therapies," said Andrea Tenner, lead author of the study that led to the findings, and a molecular biology and biochemistry professor at UCI.

During the study, the researchers fed the mice, genetically altered to develop age-related Alzheimer's-like symptoms, with PMX205 mixed in drinking water for 12 weeks.

The treatment occurred at an age when plaques were accumulating in their brains.

The researchers then gave the treated mice learning and memory tests and examined their brains for evidence of the disease.

The study showed that Alzheimer's mice that were not given the drug performed significantly worse on the test than normal mice.

But - in all but one case - the treated Alzheimer's mice performed almost as well as the normal mice.

Those with the rescued cognitive ability had more than 50 percent fewer Alzheimer's lesions and inflammatory immune cells than the untreated diseased mice.

The study has been published in the Journal of Immunology. (ANI)