An experimental cancer drug that helps the brain turn glucose into energy was able to reverse memory loss in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease.
Aging and Alzheimer's leave the brain starved of energy. Now scientists think they've found a way to aid the brain's metabolism — in mice.
So the team used genetics to eliminate the enzyme entirely from mice that develop a form of Alzheimer’s. They figured that without any IDO1, brain metabolism would decline., a professor of neurology and neuroscience at Stanford. “But no, it was the complete opposite.” Usually, astrocytes help provide energy to neurons, the cells that allow for learning and memory. But when the toxic plaques and tangles of Alzheimer’s begin to appear in the brain, levels of IDO1 rise and astrocytes stop doing this job.
Healthy mice learned how to read those cues after a few days of training, and would escape almost instantly.That changed when the team gave these mice an experimental cancer drug that could block the enzyme much the way genetic engineering had. The team also tested human astrocytes and neurons derived from Alzheimer’s patients. And once again, the drug restored normal function.The experiments add to the evidence that Alzheimer’s involves a lot more than just the appearance of plaques and tangles.Neurons have long been the focus of Alzheimer’s research. But the new results also show how other kinds of cells in the brain can play an important role in the disease.
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