Researchers from the USA achieved a breakthrough, demonstrating that neurodegenerative processes in Alzheimer’s disease may be reversible. The experimental medicine P7C3-A20 restored cognitive abilities in mice with the already developed condition.
Crucial turned out to be the substance NAD⁺, which oversees the energy metabolism in cells. In Alzheimer’s disease, its level in the brain sharply drops, which undermines neuron function, amplifies inflammation, and encourages the buildup of toxic proteins—amyloid and tau. The drug does not directly boost metabolism but assists cells in maintaining a physiologically normal level of NAD⁺, reported the journal Cell Reports Medicine.
In the animals after treatment, the quantity of pathological tau protein decreased, neural connections recovered, and impairments in memory and learning vanished. Although the findings are currently preclinical, they pave the way for therapy capable not just of slowing, but of reversing the progression of the human ailment.
Previously in ABN24: a psychiatrist cautioned that about 10% of elderly people with depression or anxiety may encounter pseudodementia. This is a condition that resembles senility.
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