Alzheimer's Drugs in Research

"Drug Discovery May Reverse
 Memory Loss in Elderly..."

...Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, have uncovered a new use for a drug that was designed to enhance memory. 

The big news is that the drug appears to trigger a natural mechanism in the brain that fully reverses age-related memory loss, even after the drug itself has left the body.

The group of UC scientists performed the studies on rats.  They used a class of drugs known as ampakines.

Ampakines were developed in the early 1990s by UC researchers to treat age-related memory impairment.

Now it turns out that the tested drugs may be useful for treating a number of central nervous system disorders, one of which is Alzheimer’s disease.

The researchers showed that ampakine drugs continue to reverse the effects of aging on a brain mechanism thought to underlie learning and memory.  The drug does that even after it is no longer in the body. That is made possible, because ampakine boosts the production of a naturally occurring protein in the brain necessary for long-term memory formation.

This is not Alzheimer's prevention, but drugs this will delay the onset.

The research was conducted by Professors Christine Gall and Gary Lynch, along with Associate Researcher Julie Lauterborn and a group of scientists. The study appears in the August issue of the Journal of Neurophysiology.

Treat Aging Memory Loss

The team reconizes this as a significant discovery and the results indicate the exciting possibility that ampakines could be used to treat learning and memory loss associated with normal aging.

The researchers treated two groups of middle-aged rats twice a day for four days with either a solution that contained ampakines or one that did not.

They found that in the ampakine-treated rats, there was a significant increase in the production of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).  BDNF is a protein known to play a key role in memory formation.

The scientists also found an increase in long-term potentiation (LPT).  That is the process where the connection among brain cells is enhanced and memory is stored.  With age, deficits in LTP emerge, and learning and memory loss occurs.

They were pleased to find restoration of LTP in the middle-aged rats’ brains even after the ampakines had been cleared from the animals’ bodies.

The drug that was injected into the rats has a half-life of only 15 minutes.  The increase of LTP in the rat's brains was still evident more than 18 hours later.

The researchers suggest that pharmaceutical products based on ampakines can be developed that do not need to be in the body at all times in order to be effective.

It has been proven that most drugs used to treat central nervous system disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease, are only effective as long as they are in the body.

The study was funded by grants from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the National Institute on Aging, and from National Institute of Mental Health. The ampakine drug was provided by Cortex.

Alzheimer's Drugs in Research