Advances in Medicine
An article, by Helen Shen, in Nature News casts doubt that a cancer drug can also effectively treat Alzheimer’s disease.
Bexarotene, a cancer drug touted as a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, may
Advances in Medicine
An article, by Helen Shen, in Nature News casts doubt that a cancer drug can also effectively treat Alzheimer’s disease.
Bexarotene, a cancer drug touted as a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, may not be the blockbuster remedy scientists were hoping for, according to several analyses published in Science on 24 May 1–4. Four independent research groups report that they failed to fully replicate striking results published in the journal last year 5 by Gary Landreth, a neuroscientist at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, and his colleagues.
Landreth's team reported that the drug bexarotene could lower brain concentrations of the β-amyloid protein that has long been suspected as a key contributor to Alzheimer’s disease, and could even reverse cognitive impairments in diseased mice. But the study garnered particular attention for its claim that the drug could clear 50% of amyloid plaques — sticky clumps of the protein thought to interfere with brain function—in as little as 72 hours. “That attracted a lot of folks to try to replicate these studies,” says Philip Wong, a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. “No drug at the present moment can do things like that.”
None of the follow-up studies published this week replicated the effects of bexarotene on plaques. Two groups did, however, confirm Landreth’s finding that the drug reduced levels of a soluble