Sep 27, 2024 09:00:00

New treatment targeting biological molecule that drives Alzheimer's disease progression shows promising results in animal studies

A research team from the Technical University of Munich has announced that it has succeeded in developing a new treatment that targets

amyloid beta, a biological molecule that causes the progression of Alzheimer's disease, and that animal experiments on mice have shown promising results.

β-amyloid monomer scavenging by an anticalin protein prevents neuronal hyperactivity in mouse models of Alzheimer's Disease | Nature Communications
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-50153-y

Therapy study: Stopping and reversing Alzheimer's at an early stage - TUM

https://www.tum.de/en/news-and-events/all-news/press-releases/details/stopping-and-reversing-alzheimers-at-an-early-stage

New Alzheimer's Therapy Shows Remarkable Results in Animal Trials

https://scitechdaily.com/new-alzheimers-therapy-shows-remarkable-results-in-animal-trials/

It is estimated that there are 55 million dementia patients worldwide, most of whom suffer from Alzheimer's disease. Although approximately 10 million new patients are diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease each year, no drugs have been developed that can counter the underlying mechanism of Alzheimer's disease, and treatment is limited to treating symptoms such as a decline in intellectual ability.

A research team led by Benedikt Sotto of the Technical University of Munich designed a new protein called 'amyloid beta-binding anticalin (H1GA)' that specifically targets amyloid beta biomolecules, which are believed to cause the typical hyperactivity of neurons in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, and produced H1GA in bacteria that were genetically modified from Escherichia coli. The research team then injected H1GA into the hippocampus of mice with symptoms of Alzheimer's disease and observed the behavior and neurons of the mice.

'The effect of H1GA is quite remarkable in that it completely inhibits hyperactivity of neurons in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease,' said Dr. Zotto, expressing his hope that H1GA could halt the progression of severe neurodegenerative diseases at an early stage.

On the other hand, it is still unclear whether H1GA will be effective in humans. 'We are still a long way from being able to provide the H1GA used in this study as a treatment for humans, but the successful results in animal experiments are very encouraging for future research,' said Zotto.