Researchers are investigating whether drugs currently used for diabetes and eye diseases could help to prevent or treat dementia.
Developing new drugs for diseases like Alzheimer’s can be very expensive, and take many years.
However, repurposing drugs that have already been approved for other health conditions could speed up the process and open up new ways to treat dementia-causing diseases, experts suggest.
Researchers at the University of Manchester are looking at whether methazolamide, a treatment used for glaucoma, can be used to treat Alzheimer’s by restoring the health of nerve cells.
They are also investigating if thiazolidinediones, a class of diabetes drugs, can help to prevent or treat vascular dementia – a common type of dementia caused by reduced blood flow to the brain.
Professor Nigel Hooper, associate vice-president for research at the University of Manchester – who is leading the research on methazolamide, explained that the drug is able to cross the blood brain barrier, and actually get into the brain.
He told the PA news agency the medication has been found to activate an enzyme in the brain (ACE2) which normally keeps neurons (nerve cells) in the brain healthy.
In patients with Alzheimer’s, the activity of this enzyme is reduced and the neurons tend to degenerate and die, causing the symptoms of dementia.
Prof Hooper said: “What we’re interested in – because nobody’s done it yet – is whether you can take this methazolamide within the context of Alzheimer’s disease, both in human cells and in mouse models, to see if we were to activate the ACE2 enzyme, will we change the pathology around Alzheimer’s disease.
“Would we potentially get the nerve cells to stop degenerating, or even regenerate?”
He added: “Probably the best we could look for is that we prevent things getting worse.
“If we got the right mix of treatments, maybe we could regenerate, at least to some extent.”
The three-year study, which has received funding from Alzheimer’s Research UK, is using human stem cells to see whether the enzyme can be activated with the drug.
And at the same time, the medication is being given to mice to see what effect that has on Alzheimer’s in the brain.
Dr Joyce Huang, a researcher at University of Manchester, is conducting the research in relation to the diabetes drugs, which may have anti-inflammatory properties that could be beneficial in vascular dementia.
She told PA: “We are looking at prevention as the primary outcome, but if that does not happen, we will further look into if they would delay the incidence of vascular dementia, and I think it will be something related to blood sugar control.”
The researchers are using the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) primary care database, which covers some 20% of the population living in England and Wales, to identify a link between people on the medication and the likelihood of developing vascular dementia.
If the results are promising, they hope to move to clinical trials.
Dr Susan Kohlhaas, executive director of research and partnerships at Alzheimer’s Research UK – which is funding both studies, said: “I think often there’s not a market for repurposed research, because it doesn’t tend to be something that’s traditionally picked up by industry.
“So it’s really important charities like Alzheimer’s Research UK can help to fill that gap, because we’re all about investing in the things that are going to make the difference as quickly as possible for people.
She added: “Twenty years ago, we often would hear, ‘Oh, there’s nothing you can do about dementia, it’s just an inevitable part of ageing’, and we know that that’s not true.
“We’ve always known that’s not true, but it seemed impossible to have treatments that actually could make a dent or slow down disease progression – we now have our first treatment licensed in the UK that can slow down the disease progression.”
Dr Kohlhaas continued: “When you look at other diseases like cancer or even other brain diseases like multiple sclerosis, where they’ve had their first generation of treatments, that has always led to improvements, iteration, and it’s led to a little bit of an explosion in the field at that point in time of then starting to think about how can we build on this to make progress faster?
“And that’s what we’re really optimistic about in Alzheimer’s Research UK, because actually, we’re at that inflection point now where we have our first generation of treatments.
“Of course, they’re not perfect, but this is the point to then build from.”
According to the charity, there are almost one million people in the UK with dementia, and while people over 65 are much more likely to get the disease, it can affect younger people too.
