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Written By: Editorial Team | Published : November 4, 2018 10:19 AM IST
Diabetes drugs can reduce the severity of Alzheimer's disease. © Shutterstock
Elderly people who suffered from diabetes have brain changes that are hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Reportedly, the results suggested that anti-diabetes medications had a protective effect on the brain of an Alzheimer's disease patient.
People who have Alzheimer's disease and were treated with diabetes medications showed fewer markers of the disease including abnormal microvasculature and deregulated gene expressions in their brains when compared to patients who were treated using other kinds of drugs, says study. Reportedly, the study was carried out by the researchers of Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the results were published in the journal of 'PLOS One'.
Reportedly, it is the first study to examine the pathways of brain tissues and endothelial cells, the cells lining blood vessels in the brains of Alzheimer's patients treated with diabetes drugs. Many elderly people suffering from diabetes have brain changes that are hallmarks of Alzheimer's. Despite this link, two previous Mount Sinai studies based on the brain tissue found that the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease and diabetes had fewer Alzheimer's lesions than compared to the brains from people with Alzheimer's disease without diabetes. Yes, we are not kidding here! According to the findings, anti-diabetes medications had a protective effect on the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients.
A method to separate brain capillaries from brain tissue of 34 people suffering from Alzheimer's and type 2 diabetes who were treated with anti-diabetes medications and compare them to tissue from 30 brains of people with Alzheimer's and without diabetes and 19 brains of people without Alzheimer's or diabetes, was developed by the researchers. Then they examined the vessels and brain tissues separately to measure Alzheimer's disease-associated changes in molecular RNA markers for brain capillary cells and insulin signalling.
In the group with Alzheimer's and diabetes, about half of these markers were reduced in the vessels and brain tissue. Study's senior author, Vahram Haroutunian said, the results of this study are important because they give us new insights into the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.
(With the inputs from ANI)
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