‘Big step forward’ in Alzheimer’s battle

SCIENTISTS are celebrating “a substantial step forward” in the search for a treatment for Alzheimer’s.

UK researchers have helped to develop a new drug treatment that may slow the progress of the disease.

A breakthrough study found that many of the features of human Alzheimer’s, including memory loss and inflammation of the brain, could be treated in mice.

The mice were given the new drug – known as a positive allosteric modulator, or M1-PAM – which is the result of more than a decade of research at the University of

Glasgow and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Professor Craig Lindsley, the lead scientist at Vanderbilt, said: “This is a very important moment, as we genuinely have the prospect of not only treating the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, including memory loss, but that we might actually be able to slow the disease and increase the lifespan of sufferers from neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.”

Despite considerable effort by scientists across the world, attempts to find a drug that can halt or slow the progression of the disease have until now been unsuccessful.

Professor Andrew Tobin, at the University of Glasgow, said: “The world desperately needs clues as to how to stop neurodegenerative diseases.

“Our study is of critical importance as we show that many of the features of the disease seen in our animal model can be halted by our drug treatment.”

Dr Louis Dwomoh, lead author on the study from the University of Glasgow, adds: “It is a huge privilege to be involved in a study that provides hope for a treatment that may halt Alzheimer’s disease. The findings mark a substantial step forward in a potential treatment for this terrible disease.