A New (Actually) Promising Alzheimer's Drug

There are a bunch of FDA-approved Alzheimer’s drugs on the market:

• Leqembi

• Aricept

• Memantine

• Revastigmine

• Galantamine

The trouble is they don’t really work. In clinical trials, the drugs were found to maybe slow down the progression of the disease in some people.

Many of them have some pretty significant potential side effects.

They also generally try to target the amyloid-beta plaques in your brain that many people believe cause Alzheimer’s. The trouble is there is a lot of evidence that those plaques are not the cause of the disease. In fact, the studies linking plaques to Alzheimer’s have some serious flaws and may be full of fraudulent data.

So the research continues. Recently some studies came out for a promising new drug. This drug makes a lot more sense.

Let me back up. Lots of more promising research is finding out that Alzheimer’s might be more about metabolic dysfunction than amyloid. The disease comes about by defective neurons and their partner cells, astrocytes, process energy. Dementia happens when there are large enough problems in processing energy.

A recent article in the journal Science talks about studies that have identified a key enzyme in astrocytes called indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1). This enzyme helps convert tryptophan (TRP) to kynurenine (KYN).

That’s about as technical as I will get in this newsletter. Suffice it to say that KYN is bad. As in starving neurons of energy bad.

IDO1 raises KYN and lowers TRP. So why not inhibit IDO1? Then the levels of KYN and TRP balance out and energy comes back to the neurons. So what will inhibit IDO1?

A new drug uncreatively called PF068 inhibits IDO1. A drug designed to fight cancer. However in human cells and animals the researchers found IDO1 was effective at bringing back energy levels in astrocytes and neurons.

This pathway also contributes to Parkinson’s.

Sounds promising. Based on my best Googling skills it looks like the drug is in Phase 1 trials. That means it has a ways to go.

If the drug continues to have success, we may have a real breakthrough in the battle against cognitive decline. If nothing else this research really reinforces the fact that Alzheimer’s and cognitive decline are metabolic diseases.

That means until a miracle drug hits the market, lifestyle still seems like the best way to fight cognitive decline. Keep eating well, exercising, sleeping and relieving stress.

Your memory is depending on you. For more on this promising research, check out this short YouTube video: