Cancer drugs may offer hope against Alzheimer's disease
- Researchers at UCSF analyzed over 1,300 drugs to find candidates that could reduce Alzheimer's risk.
- Two existing cancer medications, letrozole and irinotecan, were identified as having potential effects on gene changes related to Alzheimer's.
- The findings could lead to more efficient and cost-effective treatment options for Alzheimer's patients.
In recent months, researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, have made significant strides in understanding the potential link between cancer medications and Alzheimer's disease. They conducted a comprehensive study, analyzing over 1,300 candidate drugs, exploring their effects on Alzheimer's-related brain gene expression. From this extensive search, the team identified two existing FDA-approved cancer drugs, letrozole and irinotecan, as promising candidates for potentially lowering the risk of Alzheimer's. These drugs originally designed for breast and colon/lung cancer, respectively, appeared to reverse specific gene expression changes associated with Alzheimer's when tested on aging mice. This groundbreaking discovery is crucial as the development of new, effective Alzheimer's drugs has historically been a slow and costly process. On average, creating a new drug can take over a decade and cost billions of dollars, whereas repurposing existing medications like letrozole and irinotecan could significantly reduce both the time and financial resources needed for clinical trials. Previous attempts to create purpose-built drugs for Alzheimer's have not yielded effective results, which makes the findings from UCSF particularly noteworthy. While the mice studies showed improvements in memory and cognitive function, researchers caution that the effects on humans remain to be seen. As of now, only two FDA-approved drugs specifically target Alzheimer's, both of which require IV infusion and have limitations regarding their effectiveness for individuals in the early stages of the disease. The interpretation of findings from animal models to human patients must be approached with care, recognizing the complexities of Alzheimer’s disease. The rising prevalence of Alzheimer's disease adds urgency to this research. Presently, over seven million Americans are diagnosed with the disease, with projections estimating this number could rise to nearly 13 million by 2050. Considering that the cost of care for dementia patients is projected to reach almost $1 trillion by that year, researchers at UCSF remain hopeful that their discovery could lead to viable, rapidly actionable treatments to help millions battling Alzheimer's.