From
The Times of India:
A new study has revealed that rapamycin, a drug that keeps the immune system from attacking transplanted organs, may help fight Alzheimer's disease.
Researchers from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio found that
rapamycin rescued learning and memory deficits in a mouse model of Alzheimer's.
Senior author, Salvatore Oddo, assistant professor in the Department of Physiology of the UT Health Science Center San Antonio, said that the study offers the first evidence that the drug is able to reverse Alzheimer's-like deficits in an animal model.
The researchers also found that the drug also reduced lesions in the brains of the mice. The lesions are similar to those seen in the brains of people who died with Alzheimer's.
"Our findings may have a profound clinical implication. Because rapamycin is a US Food and Drug Administration-approved drug, a clinical trial using it as an anti-Alzheimer's disease therapy could be started fairly quickly," said Oddo.
The study has been published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry .