scientists believe; Cancer drugs already available on the NHS may help reverse Alzheimer’s disease by boosting the immune system.
A range of immunotherapy treatments, which harness the body’s own defences to ward off tumours are already revolutionising cancer care.
But now scientists believe that a similar immune boost could help people with dementia.
“Repurposing drugs that already work for other conditions could provide us with a shortcut to new dementia treatments, and is a key aspect of our Drug Discovery programme.”
Dr Doug Brown, Alzheimer’s Society
The drugs, known as PD-1 blockers, effectively prevent the immune system from switching off, allowing a continuous cascade of soldier cells to fight disease and clear out damage in the body.
In the case of Alzheimer’s disease sticky amyloid plaques build up which stop brain cells communicating with each other. But when mice, engineered to have Alzheimer’s symptoms, were given injections of the drug the amount of amyloid in their brains halved, and the animals were able to complete a maze task in the same time as control mice.
Last year the first PD-1 blocker drug Keytruda was approved for use on the NHS by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence so it is already known to be a safe treatment.
In cancer the drugs work by disabling an “immune checkpoint” called the programmed cell death receptor 1, or PD-1, which stops immune cells from attacking tumours. These checkpoints are designed to prevent the immune system killing healthy cells but they are exploited by cancer to avoid detection.
The finding is particularly interesting because previously scientists believe that an over active immune system could be responsible for Alzheimer’s and were puzzled why anti-inflammatories did no see to have any impact in trials. The new research suggests the opposite could be true.
“This new research is interesting because it helps us understand the role of the immune system in Alzheimer’s disease,” said Dr Tara Spire-Hones, of the Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems, at the University of Edinburgh.
“This current research builds on the idea that boosting brain immunity will encourage the immune system’s natural potential to clear toxic substances.“
Immonthrapy drugs have been shown to kill tumours completelySource
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