Diabetic insulin may create shield to combat Alzheimer’s
The use of insulin may help doctors slow, or even prevent memory loss in Alzheimer’s disease, according to new research published online in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
A research team from Northwestern University discovered that insulin, which is commonly used to treat diabetes, can act as a shield to deflect toxic proteins that attack the brain cells responsible for forming memories.
The scientists said that insulin, by shielding memory-forming synapses from harm, may slow or prevent the damage and memory loss caused by toxic proteins in Alzheimer’s disease.
The researchers say their findings also provide additional new evidence that Alzheimer’s could be due to a novel third form of diabetes, which was put forward in unrelated research recently.
“The discovery that anti-diabetic drugs shield synapses against ADDLs offers new hope for fighting memory loss in Alzheimer’s disease,” said lead author Fernanda De Felice, a former visiting scientist in Klein’s lab and an associate professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
“Recognizing that Alzheimer’s disease is a type of brain diabetes points the way to novel discoveries that may finally result in disease-modifying treatments for this devastating disease,” adds Sergio Ferreira, another member of the research team and a professor of biochemistry in Rio de Janeiro.
