Alzheimer's symptoms reversed in mice

摘要

What good fortune: a drug used to treat cancer can also reverse an Alzheimer's-like disease in mice, taking just 72 hours to work. Alzheimer's is associated with deposits of beta-amyloid peptides in the brain, causing neurons to die and leading to memory loss. Paige Cramer at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, reckoned it might be possible to prevent the build-up of plaques with bexarotene, an anti-cancer drug. In a healthy brain, a substance called apolipoprotein E (ApoE) helps clear beta-amyloid deposits. ApoE is activated in part by a cellular receptor called RXR; bexarotene enhances RXR action.