MW New Alzheimer's drugs could be developed from this appetite-suppressing hormone
By Brett Arends
Promising new research suggests amino acids found naturally in the human body could be turned into a drug to fight dementia
There's fresh, promising news in the fight against Alzheimer's, which is currently killing more than six million people in the U.S.
Researchers have found that certain amino acids that appear in the human body naturally can slow or even stop the disease in its early stages. The amino acids are part of the human hormone leptin, which is produced by the body's fat cells.
The discovery raises the possibility that these could be turned into a drug to treat the disease, which currently has no cure.
In conversation with MarketWatch, the professor leading the research, Jenni Harvey at Scotland's University of Dundee, warns that a treatment will be many years away even if further research goes well. "I don't think it will be anything less than 10 years," she says. "These things don't happen quickly."
There again, the possibility of an effective natural treatment in 10 years' time is an advance over the current situation, where there is no cure, and only one drug on the market, lecanemab, that can even help.
Leptin's main role is to regulate our appetites and feelings of hunger. But Harvey's team found that it also has beneficial effects on the parts of the brain connected to memory and learning - those parts most at risk from Alzheimer's.
In particular, amino acids in leptin help protect cells when the two proteins associated with Alzheimer's, amyloid-beta and tau, try to stop them communicating with each other. This is a key process in the early stages of the disease.
"What we've found is that leptin can prevent these early aberrant effects of amyloid and tau," Harvey says.
Leptin also helps protect brain cells later on when the disease tries to kill them, Harvey adds.
So far the research has only looked at the effects of leptin on Alzheimer's, the most common form of dementia, Harvey says. There is no obvious reason why it can't work on other types of dementia, such as the frontotemporal dementia that has stricken actor Bruce Willis, but so far that's untested.
There is a great deal of work still to do before the discovery can be put to use.
But in the battle against Alzheimer's every step forward is great news. It was only last year that the Food and Drug Administration approved the first drug to show any beneficial effects. Lecanemab, whose brand name is Leqimbi $(BIIB)$ (ESALF), can only slow the progress of the disease in its early stages. But in the current state of research into Alzheimer's and dementia that itself constituted a big breakthrough.
The federal government - meaning taxpayers - will this year spend just under $4 billion on Alzheimer's research, reports the Alzheimer's Association. This, for an incurable illness killing six million people, and rising.
-Brett Arends
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 25, 2024 08:06 ET (12:06 GMT)
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