Alzheimer’s disease is the leading cause of elderly dementia and affects more than 5 million people in the US alone. There is currently no cure for the condition but a study conducted by students at UC Irvine has shown that a drug that is similar to one that is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis rescued memory in mice that exhibited Alzheimer’s symptoms, offering new hope to human patients for a new treatment.

The drug is called PMX205 and it prevented immune cells from gathering in brain regions with Alzheimer’s lesions that are called amyloid plaques. If cell inflammation occurs in these areas the damage to neurons is accelerated, which worsens the disease.

Andrea Tenner is a professor of molecular biology and biochemistry at UCI and the lead author of the study. She says “We used a multidisciplinary approach combining an understanding of immunology and neurobiology to uncover a completely different target than other therapies,”

For a period of twelve weeks Professor Tenner and her colleagues added the PMX205 to the drinking water of mice who had been genetically altered to develop age related symptoms similar to Alzheimer’s. The mice were all at an age when plaques were building up in their brains.

After the course of treatment they gave the mice learning and memory tests. The mice that were not given the drug performed far worse than “normal” mice did, but in all but one case the drug treated Alzheimer’s mice performed as well as the normal, healthy mice that were also put through their paces. Upon examing the brains of the Alzheimer’s mice from both groups researchers found that the drug treated mice had 50% fewer lesions and inflamed immune cells that their untreated counterparts.

PMX53, a similar drug, has already passed phase 1 human clinical trials with no major difficulties reported. PMX205 is a more potent version that may be better suited for the treatment of brain disorders.

“This approach may work even better if combined with treatments targeting other problems in the Alzheimer’s brain,” said Tenner.

Other researchers who worked on the study were a UCI grad student, Rahasson Ager and senior researcher Marisa Fonseca. The American team also worked with two Australian scientists, Trent Woodruff and Steve Taylor.