Study suggests potential new use for immunosuppressive drug
Rapamycin, a drug that keeps the immune system from attacking transplanted organs, may have another exciting use: fighting Alzheimer's disease.
Rapamycin rescued learning and memory deficits in a mouse model of Alzheimer's, a team from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio reported Tuesday (Feb. 23).
The study, in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, offers the first evidence that the drug is able to reverse Alzheimer's-like deficits in an animal model, said the senior author, Salvatore Oddo, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Physiology of the UT Health Science Center San Antonio.
Tissue evidence
Rapamycin also reduced lesions in the brains of the mice, the team found. The lesions are similar to those seen in the brains of people who died with Alzheimer's.
"Our findings may have a profound clinical implication," said Dr. Oddo, who is a member of the university's Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies. "Because rapamycin is a U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved drug, a clinical trial using it as an anti-Alzheimer's disease therapy could be started fairly quickly."
Last year three institutions, including the Barshop Institute, announced that rapamycin extended the life span of aged research mice at each of the sites. It was the first pharmacologic intervention shown to extend life in an animal model of aging.
Study method
For 10 weeks the mice that model Alzheimer's disease were fed chow containing rapamycin. At the start of treatment the mice were 6 months old, roughly the age of young adults, but already exhibited indications of learning and memory deficits and brain lesions.