Asthma medicine rejuvenates the brain
Copper news based on the materials of New Scientist: Old rat brains rejuvenated and new neurons grown by asthma drug
Usually, with age, brain functions deteriorate: some neurons degenerate, but new ones do not appear. In addition, mild chronic inflammation develops, leading to the development of many diseases.
Ludwig Aigner and his colleagues from the Medical University of Paracelsus (Paracelsus Medical University, Austria) drew attention to receptors in the brain that, when activated, can trigger inflammatory processes. Clusters of these receptors are located in the areas of neurogenesis.
The researchers conducted an experiment involving 20 young and 14 old rats. The age of the first was 4 months, which corresponded to 17 human years, and the second – 20 months, which was equivalent to 65-75 years of a person. One group of animals received montelukast (Singular), a drug used to treat asthma and allergic rhinitis, orally in doses equivalent to those prescribed to humans for six weeks. The rats included in the control group did not take the drug.
Before the experiment began and immediately after its completion, all rats underwent tests for learning and memory. Before taking montelukast, old rats showed much worse results than young animals. However, the six-week intake of the drug practically equalized the abilities of old and young rats, who, by the way, had no improvements.
The drug also significantly reduced inflammation in the brain and increased neurogenesis in old rats – up to half of those indicators that were in young ones. The blood-brain barrier has also strengthened, which weakens towards old age.
James Nicoll, a neurologist from the University of Southampton (UK), believes that clinical trials of montelukast can be carried out easily and quickly, since this drug is widely used. Einer wants to start testing the drug on patients with Parkinson's disease.
However, opinions about the results of the study differ greatly. While some consider this work promising, others, for example, Bryce Vissel from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Australia, emphasize that so far no promising approach to the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases has been successfully transferred from animals to humans.
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02.11.2015