Cancer Drugs May Slow Alzheimer's

A study that compared gene behaviour in Alzheimer's disease with that caused by 1,300 drugs approved for use in the US has found that a combination of two cancer drugs could slow the neurodegenerative disease in mice, indicating a promise in reversing symptoms in humans.

- CORRESPONDENT

Alzheimer's disease is an ageing-related disorder in which cognitive function steadily declines, affecting speech and memory, and eventually can interfere with everyday activities.

Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco, and Gladstone Institutes in the US first saw how gene behaviour was affected in Alzheimer's disease in a single brain cell.

The researchers then looked at 1,300 drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and which of them reversed the damage.

The next stage of the study, published in the journal 'Cell', analysed electronic medical records of about 1.4 million patients and found that patients who took some of these drugs for treating conditions other than Alzheimer's disease were less likely to get the ageing-related neurological disorder.