Top line
Researchers have found that increasing dopamine production in mice with Alzheimer’s disease improves their memory. They are hopeful that this process could be replicated in humans. However, more testing is required to search out a greater alternative for humans.
Woman hugs her elderly mother.
Key data
A team of researchers at Japan’s RIKEN Center for Brain Research tested the brand new treatment by increasing dopamine production within the brains of mice with Alzheimer’s disease within the hope of accelerating levels of an enzyme called neprilysin.
Before Research has shown that neprilysin can reduce the production of protein pieces called beta-amyloid, which formation of plaques around brain neurons – one in all the earliest signs of Alzheimer’s disease – and the research team had previously found that the neurotransmitter dopamine increases neprilysin levels.
The scientists succeeded in repeatedly activating the dopamine-producing neurons within the mice’s brains. After eight weeks, the mice had significantly fewer plaques of their brains, based on a brand new study published Tuesday in Science Signaling.
Next, LevodopaSome of the mice got benzimidazole, a dopamine alternative therapy drug for Parkinson’s disease, because although drug-induced dopamine production has serious negative effects in humans, it’s a more viable treatment than genetically manipulating growth, because the researchers did within the mice.
The drug was administered for 3 months and resulted in a rise in neprilysin and a subsequent decrease in beta-amyloid. The mice that received this treatment performed higher on memory tests than the placebo group that was not treated with the drug.
What are the negative effects of levodopa?
Researchers imagine that levodopa – also often known as L-DOPA – is a very good start line for exploring human treatment options to extend dopamine production in Alzheimer’s patients. However, it is probably not the very best option in the long run since it has “severe side effects” in some Parkinson’s patients. The commonest negative effects include dizziness, nausea, confusion, hallucinations, psychosis, low blood pressure, agitation and delusions, based on StatPearls. Research. Long-term use can result in complications akin to irreversible motor dysfunction, which affects about 50% of patients who take the drug for five to 10 years. Because of those negative effects, “our next step is to study how dopamine regulates neprilysin in the brain, which should lead to a new preventive approach that can be initiated in the preclinical stage of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Dr. Watamura Naoto, lead creator of the study and a researcher on the RIKEN Center for Brain Science, in an announcement.
What is dopamine?
Dopamine – also often known as the “feel-good neurotransmitter” – is a hormone and a sort of neurotransmitter within the brain that’s utilized by the nervous system to send messages to the nerves. after to the Cleveland Clinic. It plays a crucial role within the brain’s reward system since it is released by the brain when an individual does something pleasurable. This dopamine rush causes an individual to hunt more of that feeling, which might result in behaviors like drug and alcohol addiction and overeating, based on the Cleveland Clinic. Research has shown that the hormone may play a serious role in dementia, as low dopamine levels can indicate early signs of Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia.
Big number
6.7 million. That is what number of Americans aged 65 or older could have Alzheimer’s disease in 2023, after to the Alzheimer’s Association. About one in nine people aged 65 or older has Alzheimer’s disease.
tangent
Erectile dysfunction drugs like Viagra may additionally be essential Alzheimer’s treatments, based on a study published in February by Neurology. Researchers found that participants who were prescribed erectile dysfunction drugs had an 18% lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s than participants who weren’t prescribed medication. The drugs utilized in the study are called phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors, and researchers imagine PDE5 inhibitors may reduce Alzheimer’s risk because some types of these drugs can improve brain health by increasing blood flow to the brain and decreasing the energy utilized by neurons within the brain.
Further information
Erectile dysfunction drugs like Viagra may reduce Alzheimer’s risk, study says (Forbes)
