Asthma drug could serve to treat Alzheimer’s disease

ISLAMABAD, July 7 (online): A laboratory study has found that the asthma drug salbutamol prevents the formation of tangles of fibrous protein that are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. The next step will be to test the drug in animal models of the disease.

About 50 million people worldwide have dementia, and every year, there are nearly 10 million new cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

They note that the most common form of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease, which accounts for 60–70% of all cases.

In the United States, the National Institute on Aging estimate that more than 5.5 million people have Alzheimer’s disease. Most of them are over 65 years of age.

The disease is a neurological disorder in which the death of brain cells results in progressive memory loss and cognitive decline.

While existing drug treatments help reduce the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and improve people’s quality of life, they neither slow its progression nor cure it.

The brains of people with the condition contain distinctive plaques between nerve cells, as well as clumps of fibers known as neurofibrillary tangles inside the cells.

The plaques consist of a protein called beta-amyloid, while another protein called tau makes up the tangles.

After clinical trials found that drugs that clear beta-amyloid from the brain failed to slow the disease’s progression, attempts to find a treatment have shifted to tau.

Researchers at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom believe that tau could be a more promising drug target for Alzheimer’s disease. They point to previous research, which found that in the absence of the tau neurofibrillary tangles, beta-amyloid does not seem to harm nerve cells.

Also, the number of tangles in the brain appears to be a much better indicator of the severity of the disease than the number of amyloid plaques.

In healthy brain cells, tau proteins help stabilize the internal network of microscopic tubes, or “microtubules,” that transports nutrients and other molecules around nerve cells.

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