Stroke Drug May Halt Progression of Alzheimer’s

Scientists at the University of South Australia and colleagues from Third Military Medical University in Chongqing, China, have found that the drug  Edaravone alleviates Alzheimer’s disease pathologies at multiple levels and improves learning and memory functions in mice. Edaravone is used to aid neurological recovery following acute brain ischemia and subsequent cerebral infarction, but is currently available only in some Asian countries.

“Edaravone can suppress the toxic functions of amyloid beta to nerve cells; it is a free radical scavenger which suppresses oxidative stress that is a main cause of brain degeneration,” said Professor Xin-Fu Zhou, lead researcher and research chair in neurosciences at the University of South Australia. “The drug can suppress the production of amyloid beta by inhibiting the amyloid beta production enzyme. It also inhibits the Tau hyperphosphorylation, which can generate tangles accumulated in the brain cells and disrupt brain functions.” According to Professor Zhou, lessons learned from failures of current clinical trials suggest that targeting multiple key pathways of Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis is necessary to halt and delay the disease progression. And, although he doesn’t believe Alzheimer’s disease could ever be cured, the drug is the best hope of attacking the debilitating disease through multiple signal pathways.