Hopes rise of a wonder pill to fight both Alzheimer’s and diabetes

Scientist believe the pill could be available in the next decade

A POTENT pill to combat Alzheimer’s and diabetes could be available in a decade, scientists said last night.

 

The conditions are so strikingly similar experts think a once-a-day wonder drug could combat both at the same time and have been handed almost £200,000 to fast track a cure.

The majority of Alzheimer’s patients have either Type 2 diabetes or are glucose intolerant, which means they are borderline diabetic.

It is thought a chemical interaction links two destructive proteins playing key roles in their onset, raising fresh hope they could be treated simultaneously.

Scientists now face a race against time to develop a potent treatment that “dissembles” this toxic build up.

The urgency comes as figures show a new case of dementia is diagnosed every three minutes in the UK while diabetes costs the NHS £1million an hour.

The search for one of medicine’s holy grail’s is being led by American scientist Dr Jie Zheng and a team at the University of Akron, Ohio.

Speaking to the Daily Express he said: “It is possible to treat both conditions with one pill and a drug within 10 years is a possibility.

“Both conditions are caused by peptide aggregates and they have similar biological and structural functions.

When we target this we can design a common drug to attack peptides to prevent them accumulating.

This has the potential to change the way the conditions are treated” An abnormal accumulation of Abeta peptides is linked to Alzheimer’s, while an abnormal accumulation of human islet amyloid polypeptide or hIAPP is linked to Type 2 diabetes.

It is possible to treat both conditions with one pill and a drug within 10 years is a possibility

Dr Jie Zheng

Researchers believe an all-in-one tablet could stop this toxic build up, blocking their interaction and providing the first effective treatment for both conditions.

Most Alzheimer’s sufferers have Type 2 diabetes or are at a greater risk of developing it. Studies show diabetes sufferers aged 60 and over are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s.

One reason is that diabetes can damage blood vessels, which feed cells and nerves.

The US National Science Foundation has backed Dr Zheng to develop a new class of enzyme-based drugs to block amyloid production, preventing the conditions interacting.

Leading Alzheimer’s researcher Professor Christian Hölscher of Lancaster University, said: “It has been long established that diabetes is a risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s.

This exciting research project may genuinely improve Alzheimer’s disease.

Previous studies have shown animals fed a diet designed to give them diabetes leaves their brains riddled with insoluble protein plaques, one of the features of Alzheimer’s.

Experts already know insulin plays a key role in memory. It has convinced scientists that Alzheimer’s might be caused by a type of brain diabetes.