Nasal spray to prevent Alzheimer’s was successful in an animal study

In early April, an international team of researchers broke the silence that has prevailed in an important area in the field of testing new drugs. Alzheimer’s disease (AD)after a series of failures by major pharmaceutical companies to seek a cure for this type of dementia.

In an unprecedented study published in the scientific journal Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Translation Studies and Clinical InterventionsScientists from a biotech company called Neuro-Bio tested the ability of their drug – NBP14 – to fight neurodegeneration in a mouse model genetically engineered to simulate AD.

The hypothesis of the study, which is the same that drives most AD research, is that this neurodegeneration is the result of abnormal accumulation of amyloid Beta and TAU proteins in the brain. Thus, the result of intranasal therapy applied for six weeks in the massive reduction of these markers in the mice tested After 14 weeks, it showed similar cognitive performance to normal animals.

How does nasal spray work to prevent Alzheimer’s?

Neuro-Bio’s bet on NBP14 is that this antagonist drug can block the action of a brain chemical called T14, which has been implicated in research over the past two decades to be responsible for initial cell growth and normal brain development. However, if this action is triggered unnecessarily at maturity, becomes toxic and leads to AD.

In this way, inactivation of T14 could work as a potential treatment for AD and prevent the progression of the initial cellular damage to sensitive primary cells in the deeper layers of the brain. According to Neuro-Bio, this degenerative process can be detected and measured through a blood test or skin biopsy. Since no side effects were observed, the company aims to test the nasal medicine in humans.

ARTICLE – Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Translation Studies and Clinical Interventions – DOI: 10.1002/trc2.12274.