Alzheimer’s may Respond to Blood Pressure Drug
October 26th, 2007 Posted by: Dr. Cox
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Could a high blood pressure medication hold the key to treating or maybe even preventing Alzheimerâs disease?
New York researchers hold out hope for that possibility. In a new study, they found the high blood pressure drug valsartan (Diovan) reduced the severity of the disease in mice who were bred to have a condition similar to Alzheimerâs in humans.
The research was spurred by recent evidence suggesting high blood pressure drugs might have a role to play in keeping people from developing Alzheimerâs. Investigators from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York ran 55 high blood pressure drugs through a screening process to see if they could reduce the build up of beta-amyloid protein in neurons taken from mice. Beta-amyloid protein has been implicated in the memory-robbing condition.
While seven of the drugs showed some effect, only valsartan stood out as being able to significantly reduce the protein.
Now, the researchers plan further study on the other six drugs to see whether they could also be used to treat or prevent the disease. âThese preclinical studies suggest that certain antihypertensive drugs may have [Alzheimerâs disease]-modifying activity and may protect against progressive [beta-amyloid] related memory deficits in subjects with [Alzheimerâs disease] or in those at high risk of developing [Alzheimerâs disease,]â write the authors.
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SOURCE: The Journal of Clinical Investigation, doi:10.1172/JCI31547