Retro Approach To New Info Pays Off:
In the field of research, The New rules the roost. What’s old is considered obsolete.
And nowhere is this more obvious than the search for cures to diseases.
Both The How & The Why seem so complex, the Solution must be something supercomputer-complex, & supercomputer-new, also.
Well, in a strange turn of events, an English team took the recent trend of Inflammation being implicated in many diseases, including Alzheimer’s,
And ran with it, back to a 2,000+ year-old fix that looks like the start of a new cure…
Another Ancient Cure, Circa. 420:
So a short while ago, we told you about the team of biotech rockstars at The Salk Institute,
and their research into everyone’s favorite medicinal herb, marijuana.
In that story, we related that not only does THC treatment help dementia, it does it by an interesting pathway.
It stops Inflammation in the brain.
And that team discovered inflammation is one of the big reasons the brain cells get so damaged by the plaques & proteins that surround them.
-Especially when the brain’s cleaning system isn’t doing it’s job properly.
Take 2 Aspirin & Call Me In The Morning:
So when the Manchester team started exploring treatments for Alzheimers-like disorders, they ran down the inflammation lead also.
And they started with the same thing most people do, Ibuprofen.
-And it failed.
So did several other medications.
And that’s where these pattern-matching geniuses found another interesting piece of the puzzle.
Sphere Of Influence:
It turns out they had been barking up the wrong tree.
-Or at the very least, barking up the right tree with the wrong dog.
For the simple reason that drugs like Ibuprofen have a fatal-flaw.
They only inhibit the action of ONE pathway!
-A protein called Cyclooxygenase.
The Shotgun Approach Works. Period.:
So after multiple failures, the team combed the list of drugs in the same general category.
And found what turned out to be an incredible winner.
An older, slightly-unknown drug called Mefenamic Acid, sold as a prescription under the brand-name Ponstel for serious menstrual pain.
And Ponstel is a winner for one simple reason. It’s not targeted.
It blocks ALL of the Inflammation!
I’m A Joker, I’m A Smoker, I’m A Midnight Toker…:
And just like our old pal THC, whatever specific target the Tau Proteins & Amyloid-B Plaques occupy in their inflammation of Dementia’d brain-cells,
That target was hit by Ponstel.
And in the tests on mice that would have developed Alzheimer’s-like symptoms by a certain age,
The subjects on the drug-regimen had virtually 100% of their memory-loss problems Reversed!
-BOOM!
Next Steps: Remedy, Prevention, Cure. Good News, Bad News:
So the Bad News is, that for now, Ponstel does not look like it -yet- represents a “Cure” for Alzheimer’s.
The actual mechanism of what it does looks like Inflammation-only for now.
There is no word on How Long a person, or even a Mouse, would have to be on the drug-regimen.
It Still does look like there is a malfunction, or age/heredity-related functional-reduction of the brain’s cleaning system.
Astracyte-Wars, A New Hope:
But that’s okay!
Because Ponstel has already been tested and approved for widespread-use by the FDA.
-Whcic brings us to another miracle!
It Fast-Forwards the team’s research by FIFTEEN YEARS!
(which is the general timeframe needed to develop a new drug and have it tested by drug-safety authorities).
So They Can Start Testing On Humans! SOON!:
And until we have an actual Cure for people who already DO have Alzheimer’s, like a crestor-strength drano for the brain’s cleaning-system,
There is now a REALLY good chance we have a pretty-effective stopgap-remedy for the problems a person could be experiencing NOW!
And that is cause for a good deal of Hope!
Check out all the fantastic, hopeful details at the Links!:
JUMP BONUS! Manchester Docs Explain!:
Photo/Video Credits:
Video by The University Of Manchester
Photo, “The John Rylands Reading Room Enclosure” by Michael D Beckwith
Links:
• Source: Manchester U.
• via: MentalFloss
• Source Study: Nature-Fenamate NSAIDs inhibit the NLRP3 inflammasome and protect against Alzheimer’s disease in rodent models
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