A pill that reverses age-related mental decline that affects three-quarters of a million people in the UK may be on the horizon as a result of research on new nerve drugs.
The studies raise the possibility of a cure for memory loss and fading mental faculties in an ageing population, according to experts who stress that a lot more work is needed to develop the early animal research.
Alzeheimer Scotland says about 65,000 people have the condition in Scotland and the number of people affected will pass 100,000 by 2029.
Scientists in the US screened thousands of compounds for their brain-protective properties. They identified one called P7C3 that had dramatic effects on ageing rats and genetically engineered mice.
The molecule spurred on the growth of new neurons in a part of the brain vital to memory, according to the research, which has been reported in the journal Cell.
It significantly improved the ability of ageing rats to swim through a water maze – a standard test of memory-dependent learning – and assisted the birth of brain cells in mice.
Further research showed that a derivative of the compound, called A20, had an even bigger impact on the brain.
The scientists are still trying to find out how the drugs work. They appear to prevent a process called apoptosis, which causes cells to self-destruct.
Thomas Insel, director of the US body that funded the work, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), said: “This striking demonstration of a treatment that stems age-related cognitive decline in living animals points the way to potential development of the first cures that will address the core illness process in Alzheimer’s disease.”
A key factor is that P7C3 can be swallowed, rather than having to be injected.
Dr Steven McKnight, one of the research leaders from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre in Dallas, said: “The neuroprotective compound, called P7C3, holds special promise because
of its medication-friendly properties.
“It can be taken orally, crosses the blood-brain barrier with long-lasting effects, and is safely tolerated by mice during many stages of development.”
The “blood-brain barrier” is a biological wall designed to prevent potentially harmful substances entering the brain.
Drugs that target the brain have to overcome this obstacle if they are to be effective.
Scientists now know that the adult brain is “plastic” and capable of regenerating itself under the right conditions.
Nerve growth in the hippocampus, the brain’s memory centre, can potentially stave off mental decline.
However, even in a normal brain most of the newborn neurons die during the month or more it takes them to develop and become “wired in”.
Newborn hippocampus neurons are known to fare much worse in people with age-related disorders such as Alzheimer’s, which cause the runaway death of nerve cells.
The scientists set about trying to find compounds that might protect vulnerable growing neurons in the dentate gyrus, a key area of the hippocampus.
They found that giving P7C3 to the genetically engineered adult mice reduced the death of newborn cells.
It prevented the stunted growth of branch-like neuronal extensions, and thickened an abnormally thin layer of cells by 40%.
When the compound was fed to ageing rats, they outperformed other rodents in the water maze test.
This was traced to a level of newborn neurons in the dentate gyrus of the treated animals, which was three times higher than normal.
Other compounds with structural similarities to P7C3 may also be worth investigating, said the scientists.
At least two of these have already been looked at as potential Alzheimer’s treatments. The P7C3 derivative A20 was 300 times more potent than one of these drugs, Dimebon, which failed in a Phase III patient trial, the researchers said.
They wrote: “The speculative idea that these chemicals share a common mode of action will only be rigorously tested upon identification of their molecular target.”
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