Immune system suppressant effective in preventing Alzheimer’s disease

A drug that suppresses the immune system to prevent rejection of transplanted bodies might prevent Alzheimer's disease.

The discovery came as researchers reviewed data that showed that dementia and Alzheimer's occurred among transplant patients at much lower rates than in the general population.

Calcineurin, an enzyme responsible for regulating communication between brain cells and memory formation, played a key role in the formation of toxic protein aggregates that targeted and disrupted the brain cells responsible for memory among Alzheimer's patients.

Calcineurin inhibitor-based medications, such as Tacrolimus or cyclosporine, were given to transplant recipients for suppressing the immune system and prevention of rejection of the new organs. However, researchers would still need a way to block calcineurin, to benefit Alzheimer's patients, without affecting the immune system.

According to Giulio Taglialatela, professor and vice chair for research in the department of neurology and director of University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB)'s Mitchell Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, the researchers were currently working on devising treatment strategies to obtain the same beneficial effects in AD humans using low doses of calcineurin inhibitors that result in minimal or no immunosuppression, thus limiting possible undesired side effects.

The data from the study was compared with national data obtained from the 2014 Alzheimer's Association Facts and Figures dataset on age-matched patients to compare the prevalence of the disease.

''These data clearly show that the prevalence of dementia and Alzheimer's in our transplant patient group is significantly lower, in fact almost absent, when compared to national data from the general population,'' said senior author Luca Cicalese, professor in the department of surgery.

''In patients over 65 years, 11 per cent of the general population had dementia compared with 1.02 per cent of the study subjects. In Americans over 75 years, 15.3 per cent of the population had dementia compared with 0.6 per cent of the study subjects. Among Americans over 85 years, 32 per cent had dementia, although we did not have any patients in this age group with dementia.''

An online version of the paper detailing the findings had been published and the paper was scheduled for publication in the 7 July issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.