How does one molecule help restore cognitive abilities?
Imagine your brain as a city, and the memory and thinking abilities are powered by an electrical system that lights up this city. Alzheimer's disease is a problem that disrupts the electrical flow of that system and causes electrical shorts, leading to memory loss and confusion, just like what would happen if some traffic lights and streetlights in the city were to go out.
Most existing treatments for Alzheimer's are aimed at cleaning the "junk" that accumulates in the brain (plaque) and causes these power outages, but the problem is that they don't address the power outages themselves. In contrast, the newly discovered molecule, named DDL-920, can actually do this, like an electrician called to fix the electrical short, and thanks to it, the future of Alzheimer's treatment looks much more promising.
"There is really nothing like this on the market or in the experimental field, and no other treatment has shown the ability to do this," says Dr. István Módy, a professor of neurology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the lead researcher. Indeed, even the modern drugs recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), such as Lecanemab, which was approved for use in the U.S. in 2023, can only clean the plaque buildup in the brain but cannot repair the damage it caused. "These drugs may leave a brain without plaque, but all the pathological changes in the wiring mechanisms of nerve cells remain damaged," says Dr. Módy, meaning they do not address the cognitive problems that have already occurred.
The results in experiments look very promising
The brain sends electrical signals at different rates to activate and deactivate various functions within it, much like how traffic lights work. Gamma wave oscillations are the ones that influence cognitive processes and working memory – the type of memory that helps us remember phone numbers, for example – and Alzheimer's patients who experience symptoms such as memory impairment show a decrease in gamma wave oscillations in their brains.
In other studies, attempts were made to restore memory by increasing gamma wave oscillations with the help of external aids, such as magnetic frequencies, but without success. However, in the current study, there is a significant breakthrough. Instead of trying to influence gamma wave oscillations using external aids, the researchers decided to try to influence the brain from within – with the help of molecules – and the molecule DDL-920 succeeded in the task.
In lab experiments, mice with Alzheimer's symptoms and healthy mice were tested, and they learned to navigate a maze with cues meant to lead them to the exit hole. The mice suffering from Alzheimer's were given a dose of the DDL-920 molecule twice a day for two weeks, and as a result, they showed remarkable improvement in their ability to navigate the maze and find the exit, functioning just as well as healthy mice in the same maze.
Moreover, no negative side effects were observed from the treatment with the molecule, so researchers speculate that treatment with it will be safe for humans as well. However, more human trials are still needed to confirm this theory. If the trials show success at the same level, the molecule will allow effective treatments not only for Alzheimer's patients but also for those with schizophrenia, depression, and people on the autism spectrum.
Is this really a miracle cure for Alzheimer's?
Dr. Módy claims that this mechanism has never been tested and studied before, so it represents a new direction that researchers have not yet tried, and it has a high chance of becoming the leading treatment for Alzheimer's patients. As mentioned, many more trials are still needed on the subject, but researchers are very optimistic. We hope to hear more developments on this soon, and we would be happy to discover if, in the near future, there will indeed be an available treatment that can restore the brain function of Alzheimer's patients to its former state. If so, we may be able to say goodbye to the damage caused by the disease and hello to a new era where "Alzheimer's" is no longer a scary word, but simply another disease that can be treated and its symptoms managed with a simple and quick treatment.
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