Scientists in America have developed a nasal spray that can remove proteins in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease – at least, in mice. There are two proteins implicated in Alzheimer’s: amyloid and tau. Most of the drugs – included those recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – focus on removing amyloid .
To date, though, there has been little focus on removing tau “tangles”. However, the new nasal spray, developed by researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch, focuses on this protein. In a healthy brain, tau, among other things, helps to maintain the support structure of neurons (brain cells).
In Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative disease, these proteins accumulate inside cells, abnormally twist and form thread-like structures known as neurofibrillary tangles. These tangles are not efficiently cleared by the brain’s normal waste removal processes, which causes cell damage and death. This leads to memory loss.
So targeting tau may be an effective treatment for several neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s, frontotemporal dementia , Lewy body dementia and progressive supranuclear palsy . As mentioned above, Alzheimer’s is not only associated with the accumulation of tau inside neurons but also with the build up of amyloid plaques between neurons, leading to their death. So far, most treatments for Alzheimer’s disease have targeted the removal of amyloid from the brain.
These include the FDA-a.