Intake of FDA-Approved Drug Modulates Disease Progression in Alzheimer’s Model

 With your excellent chance of getting dementia, you'll want your doctor to be following this closely. Do not self treat,

Your risks of dementia, has your doctor told you of this?

1. A documented 33% dementia chance post-stroke from an Australian study?   May 2012.

2. Then this study came out and seems to have a range from 17-66%. December 2013.`    

3. A 20% chance in this research.   July 2013.

4. Dementia Risk Doubled in Patients Following Stroke September 2018

Where are the  protocols to prevent your dementia?

 

When I was on this drug in a clinical trial it flared up my eczema so bad I quit the trial.

The latest here:

Intake of FDA-Approved Drug Modulates Disease Progression in Alzheimer’s Model

Summary: Niaspan, an FDA-approved drug, limits disease progression in lab models of Alzheimer’s disease.

Source: Indiana University

Indiana University School of Medicine researchers have found that niacin limits Alzheimer’s disease progression when used in models in the lab, a discovery that could potentially pave the way toward therapeutic approaches to the disease.

The study, recently published in Science Translational Medicine, investigates how niacin modulates microglia response to amyloid plaques in an Alzheimer’s disease animal model.

Gary Landreth, Ph.D., Martin Professor of Alzheimer’s Research, and Miguel Moutinho, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow in Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiology, led the study.

“This study identifies a potential novel therapeutic target for Alzheimer’s disease, which can be modulated by FDA-approved drugs,” Moutinho said. “The translational potential of this strategy to clinical use is high.”

Niacin, which sustains metabolism throughout the body, is mainly obtained through a typical diet; it also can be taken in supplements and cholesterol-lowering drugs. The brain, however, Moutinho found, uses niacin in a different manner.

In the brain, niacin interacts with a highly-selective receptor, HCAR2, present in immune cells physically associated with amyloid plaques. When niacin—used in this project as the FDA-approved Niaspan drug—activates the receptor, it stimulates beneficial actions from these immune cells, Landreth said.

Niacin, which sustains metabolism throughout the body, is mainly obtained through a typical diet; it also can be taken in supplements and cholesterol-lowering drugs. Image is in the public domain

“After the Alzheimer’s disease animal models received niacin, they ended up with fewer plaques and they have improved cognition,” Landreth said, “and we directly showed that these actions were due to the HCAR2 receptor.”

Past epidemiology studies of niacin and Alzheimer’s disease showed that people who had higher levels of niacin in their diet had diminished risk of the disease, Landreth said. Niacin is also currently being used in clinical trials in Parkinson’s disease and glioblastoma.

To further their research into niacin and the brain, Landreth and Moutinho are collaborating with Jared Brosch, MD, associate professor of clinical neurology, who is applying for a clinical pilot trial to study the affects of niacin and the human brain.

About this neuropharmacology and Alzheimer’s disease research news

Author: Press Office
Source: Indiana University
Contact: Press Office – Indiana University
Image: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: Open access.
“The niacin receptor HCAR2 modulates microglial response and limits disease progression in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease” by Miguel Moutinho et al. Science Translational Medicine