A drug commonly used to treat epilepsy could help clear the plaques in the brain associated with Alzheimer's disease, according to researchers at the University of Leeds. The plaques are known to lead to the progressive death of nerve cells in the brain linked to many forms of dementia.
Sodium valproate - which is marketed as the anti-seizure drug Epilim - has been shown by scientists at the University of Leeds to reactivate the body's own defences against a small protein called amyloid beta peptide, which is the main component of the brain plaques characteristic in Alzheimer's. Their work was funded by the Medical Research Council.
"The fact that we've been able to show that a well-established, safe and relatively inexpensive drug could help treat Alzheimer's is an extremely exciting development," says lead researcher Professor Tony Turner from the University's Faculty of Biological Sciences. "We hope colleagues will be able to progress this research with clinical trials in the near future."
Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia and has no cure. In the UK today there a half a million people living with Alzheimer's - and this is likely to double within a generation unless new treatments are found.
Sodium valproate has been used for many years to suppress epileptic seizures and the many sufferers of epilepsy have been taking the drug for decades with few side effects.