A drug commonly used to treat glaucoma has been shown in zebrafish and mice to protect against the build-up in the brain of the protein tau, which causes various forms of dementia and is implicated in Alzheimer's disease.
University of CambridgeNov 1 2024 A drug commonly used to treat glaucoma has been shown in zebrafish and mice to protect against the build-up in the brain of the protein tau, which causes various forms of dementia and is implicated in Alzheimer's disease.
There has been little progress in finding effective drugs to treat these conditions. One option is to repurpose existing drugs. However, drug screening – where compounds are tested against disease models – usually takes place in cell cultures, but these do not capture many of the characteristics of tau build-up in a living organism.
Dr. Ana Lopez Ramirez from the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience and the UK Dementia Research Institute at the University of Cambridge, joint first author, said: "Zebrafish provide a much more effective and realistic way of screening drug compounds than using cell cultures, which function quite differently to living organisms.
Related StoriesAnalysis of the mouse brains showed that they indeed had fewer tau aggregates, and consequently a lesser reduction in brain cells, compared with the untreated mice. This shows how we can use zebrafish to test whether existing drugs might be repurposed to tackle different diseases, potentially speeding up significantly the drug discovery process."
Neurodegenerative Diseases Alzheimer's Disease Brain Cell Chronic Dementia Drugs Encephalopathy Head Trauma Medical Research Nerve Neurodegeneration OCT Progressive Supranuclear Palsy Protein Research Tau Protein Trauma
United Kingdom Latest News, United Kingdom Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
AI model analyzes retinal images to detect early Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive declineResearchers developed an AI-based deep learning model that uses retinal images to detect early-stage Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment with high accuracy, offering a noninvasive, cost-effective screening tool.
Read more »
Clinical trials sparking hope for Alzheimer's patients: ‘Holding my own'A nationwide Alzheimer's clinical trial, BenfoTeam, is being locally administered by MedVadis, a partner of Boston Advanced Medicine based in Waltham.
Read more »
Clinical trials sparking hope for Alzheimer's patients: ‘Holding my own'A nationwide Alzheimer's clinical trial, BenfoTeam, is being locally administered by MedVadis, a partner of Boston Advanced Medicine based in Waltham.
Read more »
Second ‘game-changing’ Alzheimer’s drug docanemab that slows disease gets green light in UK...What is the 'game-changing' Alzheimer's drug donanemab?
Read more »
Second Alzheimer's 'wonder drug' blocked for use on NHS due to high costsNHS spending watchdog said donanemab, which would have been available to around 70,000 people in England and Wales, 'does not currently demonstrate value' for money.
Read more »
Pioneering Alzheimer's drug rejected for widespread use in NHS in EnglandThis is the second time a new Alzheimer's treatment has been rejected by the health spending watchdog in a matter of months.
Read more »