Could An Anti-Cancer Drug Delay Alzheimer Disease Onset?

A new study suggests that approved anti-cancer drug bexarotene—if administered early enough—could postpone the onset of Alzheimer disease.

A team including researchers from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom searched a library of 10,000 small molecules that the authors had compiled by searching for compounds that interact with amyloid beta, a protein molecule that’s instrumental in forming plaques in Alzheimer disease. The investigators first screened for drugs already approved for treating other diseases, or for drugs developed to treat Alzheimer and similar conditions but had not passed clinical trials.
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The first molecule the team identified was bexarotene, which they gave to nematode worms that had been genetically programmed to develop symptoms of Alzheimer. The drug disrupted the first steps of the process and completely subdued the formation of the plaques in the worms, according to the authors, who note that the drug had no effect once Alzheimer symptoms were already apparent. Additional analysis of bexarotene’s molecular action found that it halts primary nucleation, the first step in the chain reaction that leads to amyloid plaque formation.

“What we’ve done is provide initial evidence that ‘neurostatin’ drugs can be developed to prevent the risk of Alzheimer disease, much in the same way statins prevent the risk of heart conditions,” says Michele Vendruscolo, PhD, a professor in the department of chemistry at the University of Cambridge, and co-author of the study.

While it’s “very early to say when the first neurostatins will become available, the implication is that they may be eventually taken by people in their 30s and 40s,” says Vendruscolo, “to help prevent Alzheimer disease.”

—Mark McGraw

Reference

Habchi J, Arosio P, et al. An anticancer drug suppresses the primary nucleation reaction that initiates the production of the toxic Aβ42 aggregates linked with Alzheimer’s disease. Science Advances. 2016.