MW The miracle of curing Alzheimer's? No longer an impossibility.
By Brett Arends
More research shows the disease may one day be reversible
Recent science on Alzheimer's disease provides cause for optimism.
A new scientific breakthrough in the field of Alzheimer's research is raising hopes that the cruel, crippling and fatal brain disease may eventually become curable.
An international team of more than 35 scientists from some of the world's leading institutions have published new research showing "proof of principle" that advanced Alzheimer's disease - often characterized not only by the loss of memory and executive function, but of one's actual personality - could be "reversible."
"Alzheimer's disease can be reversed to achieve full neurological recovery - not just prevented or slowed - in animal models," according to researchers at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, whose scientists helped lead the investigation.
Mice who were administered a regular course of a pharmacological agent called P7C3-A20 experienced "full cognitive recovery" even if they already had advanced Alzheimer's, the researchers found.
What was most surprising was that the treatment didn't merely prevent the disease in mice that hadn't yet developed, it but also reversed the damage among those that did. This was tested not only with biological markers showing brain damage but also in behavioral tests - such as the well-known Morris water maze test, where mice must remember the location of an escape route once it's been hidden. The treatment reversed worsening memory, spatial learning, coordination and mobility caused by the disease.
The research has just been published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Cell Reports Medicine. The team involved in the research included scientists from Johns Hopkins, UCLA, Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Northwestern, the University of Texas, the Cleveland Clinic and Seoul National University and others, as well as Case Western Reserve.
This is not the first research to suggest dementia might someday be curable. Three months ago, another international team of scientists involving researchers in China, Spain and the U.K. also found they were able to undo physical brain damage in mice that resulted from Alzheimer's. Treated mice showed "significant improvements in spatial learning and memory," they found. That research was published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature.
Mice brains are often used in scientific research into human brain pathologies including dementia because of key similarities between the two. Courtney Kloske, the director of scientific engagement for the nonprofit Alzheimer's Association, has told MarketWatch in the past that studies based on mice are valuable, even if their findings inevitably come with obvious caveats.
"While animal models of the disease are somewhat similar to how Alzheimer's progresses in humans, they do not replicate the disease in humans exactly," she said. "Models are important in helping us understand the basic biology of the disease, but we need human studies in representative populations for ideas to be fully validated."
But these remarkable findings offer hope nonetheless in a field that until recently was plunged almost entirely into gloom. Until a few years ago, there were effectively no meaningful treatments for Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia. So far, the main medical breakthrough since then has been Leqimbi $(BIIB)$ $(ESAIY)$, a treatment that merely slows the progress of the disease in its earlier stages.
Alzheimer's and other types of dementia are currently affecting about 7 million Americans and an estimated 55 million people worldwide. The disease is progressive and fatal, and has until now been almost entirely untreatable.
The other source of hope has been findings published by a standing committee of experts convened by the medical journal The Lancet, who have argued that nearly half of all dementias could potentially be avoided by addressing "lifestyle issues." That includes addressing behaviors and afflictions such as smoking, overeating and depression.
-Brett Arends
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 29, 2025 13:21 ET (18:21 GMT)
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