This class of drugs “wake up immune cells in cancer” and restore glucose metabolism in the brain by targeting a process known as the kynurenine pathway, Katrin Andreasson, the study’s senior author and a professor of neurology and neurological sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine, told The Epoch Times. This improved the survival of neurons, which are brain cells that store and transmit messages, subsequently rescuing spatial memory and learning, in mice. It also restored glucose metabolism in the hippocampus, the brain area often first affected in Alzheimer’s.
This restoration enables neurons to become healthier and function better, helping them resist the progression of various pathologies. The more recently approved drugs are antibodies that try to clear amyloid, the harmful proteins that build up in the brain, Andreasson said. Yet these drugs have had “a minimal effect on cognition.
” IDO1 inhibitors target an entirely different mechanism which may offer patients an alternative treatment, she said. The study found that while the drug didn’t lower the overall amount of harmful substances in the brain, it did help reduce the buildup of amyloid proteins in the hippocampus, a key region affected in Alzheimer’s disease. “We were pretty surprised .
.. at the magnitude of the reduction,” Andreasson said.
A study published in Stem Cell Reports suggests that animal models may not be well-suited for evaluating potential Alzheimer’s treatments. An an.