It’s a new treatment which raises the hope of treating Alzheimer’s disease. While 50 million people are affected by dementia worldwide according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and around 1 million people suffer fromAlzheimer in France, researchers have just revealed thata safe and effective nasal spray might be a treatment for dementia in general and Alzheimer’s disease in particular. In a study published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience on December 13, researchers from Osaka University in Japan demonstrated that intranasal administration of rifampicin and resveratrol improved cognitive function and made it possible to fight effectively once morest Alzheimer’s disease, without the negative side effects on the liver of rifampicin alone. The promising research results should lead to the development ofa safe and effective nasal spray for the prevention of dementia.
Combination of an antibiotic and an antioxidant
“Dementia is thought to occur when proteins called amyloid-β, tau and α-synuclein build up in the brain and form oligomers,” the researchers say in a communicated published on the Osaka University website. In a previous study, a research group from the Department of Translational Neuroscience at Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine had previously shown that the antibiotic called “Rifampicin” cleared oligomers from the brain and improved cognitive function. Problem, scientists found that the drug was associated with side effects, especially on the liver. “To combat the negative side effects of the existing drug rifampicin, we thought of combine it with the hepatoprotective effects of resveratrol”, Explains Professor Takami Tomiyama, principal investigator of the study. Resveratrol, an antioxidant found naturally in plants, is used as a dietary supplement in Europe and the United States.
In this new experiment, the researchers this time administered a fixed-dose combination of rifampicin and intranasal resveratrol five days per week for a total of four weeks in mice with Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia and Lewy body dementia. The scientists then observed their cognitive functions and their brain pathologies. As a result, the combined nasal administration of rifampicin and resveratrol was Significantly improved cognitive function in mice and inhibited the accumulation of oligomers in the brain of rodents.
A way to prevent dementia
The researchers also found that blood levels of liver enzymes, a marker for liver damage that normally increase with rifampicin, remained normal in the fixed-dose combination. “The results indicate that nasal administration of a fixed dose combination of rifampin and resveratrol present is more attractive compared to rifampicin monotherapy in terms of safety and efficacy. Our results provide a way of prevent dementia neurodegenerative by targeting oligomers“, concluded the scientists.
“Recent studies have shown that abnormalities start to appear in the brains of patients with dementia more than 20 years before onset of the disease “, explains the first author of the study, Tomohiro Umeda. By studying new therapeutic avenues with existing drugs, the research team hopes to diagnose and prevent dementia before the neurons start to die.
