Alzheimer's Patients May Benefit From Manic Depressive Medication

The Alzheimer's brain carries two notable hallmarks - the build-up of protein deposits known as amyloid plaques outside nerve cells, and the accumulation of so-called neurofibrillary tangles inside cells. Peter S. Klein and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia report that lithium and kenpaullone, two inhibitors of the enzyme glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3), can stop plaques forming in the brains of mice with a form of Alzheimer's disease, and in cultured cells.

Such compounds can also prevent tangles from forming. "So GSK-3 inhibitors could be an attractive addition to the candidate drugs for preventing amyloid plaques - with the potential benefit of inhibiting the formation of tangles, too," say Bart De Strooper of the Katholieke Universiteit in Leuven, Belgium, and James Woodgett of the Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto, Canada, in an accompanying News and Views article.

CONTACT:

Peter Klein
Tel: +1 215 898 2179
E-mail: pklein@mail.med.upenn.edu

Bart De Strooper
Tel: +32 16 34 62 27
E-mail: bart.destrooper@med.kuleuven.ac.be

James Woodgett
Tel: +1 416 946 2962
E-mail: jwoodgett@uhnres.utoronto.ca

(C) Nature press release.

Message posted by: Trevor M. D'Souza