Scientists have found out that montelukast, which is used to keep asthma attacks in children and adults is capable to reverse the brain's ageing process in rats. This could lead to decreasing the rate of deterioration of the human brain or even stopping dementia.
A drug called montelukast (Singulair), regularly prescribed for asthma and allergic rhinitis blocks eotaxin in the brain which leads to inflammation. Eotaxin is an inflammatory molecule involved in asthma is the same factor in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Huntington's.
Neuroscientist Ludwig Aigner, of the Paracelsus Medical University in Salzburg, Austria and his colleagues thought it might have the same possibility in brain too. So they tried it on young and old rats using oral doses measuring the same given to those people with asthma. Tests done on older rats' memory and intelligence nearly matched with their younger counterparts.
For six weeks, the drug was given daily to a group of 20-month-old rats equivalent to a human age between 65 and 75 years. Another group of older and younger rats remained untreated. The rats were placed in a pool of water with a concealed escape platform. Offset, those given the drug could find the location of the platform almost considerably as younger animals while the untreated older animals struggled at the task. The researchers discovered from a section of the rats' brains given with drugs had more newly developed neurons and had less inflammation in their brains.
"The important thing is that while we saw effects on neurogenesis, we also saw effects on other systems in the brain. The drug reduces neural inflammation in the brain. But we also looked at that blood-brain barrier and that is partially restored. We know in aged brains that the blood-brain barrier is leaky and that contributes to neural inflammation," said Aigner.
According to Research and Development for the Alzheimer's Society director Doug Brown, the inflammation in the brain may lead to the development of Alzheimer's disease, for researchers to come up with a cure is very encouraging.
"The approach of repurposing existing drugs is a promising one as it could mean new treatments for dementia become available in half of the time of a standard drug - bringing hope to hundreds of thousands. Through our drug discovery programme, Alzheimer's Society is currently co-funding a clinical trial into the arthritis drug Etanercept, which could work in a similar way by reducing inflammation in the brain." He added.
