Dementia is the UK’s greatest killer, claiming extra lives than coronary heart assaults and strokes mixed. Regardless of years of exhaustive analysis costing thousands and thousands, science has didn’t discover a remedy or drug to forestall it.
Final 12 months, knowledge on a brand new drug – donanemab – prompt it might delay the worsening of signs in early Alzheimer’s, whereas an analogous drug, lecanemab, was virtually as efficient.
However severe side-effects – a 3rd of sufferers on donanemab suffered mind bleeds – and the prohibitive price of £60,000 for an 18-month course meant neither was authorised for the NHS.
Now, although, there are contemporary hopes for current, cheaper and available medication, akin to aspirin, statins and even the weight-loss jab Ozempic.
‘Repurposing’, as it’s identified, hit the headlines lately following the outcomes of a seven-year examine that discovered folks given Zostavax, a shingles vaccine, had been 20 per cent much less more likely to develop dementia, reported the journal Nature.
Comparable outcomes had been seen with one other shingles vaccine, Shingrix, in analysis printed final 12 months by scientists at Oxford College.
The idea is that by stopping reactivation of the herpes zoster virus – which causes chickenpox in childhood after which stays dormant within the physique till it’s triggered later in life to resurface as shingles – the vaccines keep at bay irritation within the nervous system that heightens the danger of dementia.
At round £200 for a shingles jab, researchers mentioned it might be an inexpensive and simple strategy to forestall future dementia instances.
Dementia is the UK’s greatest killer, claiming extra lives than coronary heart assaults and strokes mixed
‘Repurposing’, as it’s identified, brings contemporary hopes for current, cheaper and available medication, akin to aspirin, statins and even the weight-loss jab Ozempic to keep at bay dementia
And it’s not simply available vaccines that might assist.
Earlier this month, scientists at Hallym College Faculty of Medication in South Korea discovered that statins – taken by about eight million folks within the UK to chop ldl cholesterol and which price as little as 4p every – diminished the danger of Alzheimer’s by 28 per cent.
Excessive ldl cholesterol has been proven to lift dementia danger, presumably by inflicting blood vessels to turn out to be infected, limiting blood circulate to the mind.
The researchers tracked greater than half one million folks and located that those that diminished their dangerous levels of cholesterol by taking statins had been a lot much less more likely to develop dementia.
In the meantime, trials have discovered that over-the-counter painkillers aspirin and ibuprofen may also assist forestall dementia.
A current examine within the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society confirmed that the medication diminished the danger by as much as 20 per cent.
The researchers prompt that they labored by dampening down irritation within the physique’s blood vessels and tissues – however provided that the drug was taken usually for greater than two years. Nonetheless, each of these drugs – that are generally known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication – enhance the danger of abdomen ulcers and severe inside bleeding if taken for weeks at a time.
Different researchers are probing whether or not tablets already used to deal with hypertension might help.
A 2023 examine printed in JAMA Community Open discovered medication referred to as angiotensin-receptor 비아그라 정품 blockers diminished dementia danger by virtually a 3rd. It was prompt it might be from boosting blood circulate to the mind or 비아그라 파는곳 partially destroying dangerous deposits within the mind which were linked to the situation.
Even Ozempic, developed as a diabetes therapy however which has turn out to be a vastly widespread weight-loss treatment, is likely to be a weapon towards dementia.
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Final 12 months, researchers at Case Western Reserve College in Ohio discovered its lively ingredient, 비아케어 semaglutide, reduce the danger of Alzheimer’s in sufferers with kind 2 diabetes by two-thirds – most certainly as a result of it improves the way in which the mind makes use of insulin to decrease blood sugar ranges.
This may also clarify why an inexpensive kind 2 diabetes drug, metformin, has additionally been proven to guard towards dementia.
Some research counsel widespread antibiotics can also assist, presumably by decreasing irritation. And there’s one other, much more unlikely, candidate: Viagra.
A examine final 12 months by College Faculty London discovered the erectile dysfunction therapy diminished the danger of Alzheimer’s by as much as 44 per cent when taken usually. Viagra relaxes blood vessels, and research have proven this improves blood circulate within the mind.
‘It is totally doable the subsequent breakthrough in dementia therapy comes from repurposing an previous drug,’ says Pat Kehoe, a professor of translational dementia analysis at Bristol College.
However he warns there’s little monetary incentive for pharmaceutical firms to fund trials, as a lot of the medication are so low-cost that earnings can be tiny. ‘We might be sitting on potential treatments – the issue is getting the funding to search out out what they’re.’
Previous medicines with a brand new use?
Aspirin and ibuprofen
Statins
Blood strain drugs (akin to losartan or valsartan)
Zostavax (a shingles vaccine)
Ozempic
Metformin (used for kind 2 diabetes)
Viagra
Antibiotics
South KoreaNHSOzempicOxford College
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