Metformin may also help against Alzheimer's

Anti-Diabetes Drug protects brain cells against cell death

 Berlin - researchers is a promising breakthrough for the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer's disease successfully. In collaboration with European colleagues, the scientists were able to Susann Schweiger at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics show that used for Type II diabetes drug metformin also appears to influence the progression of Alzheimer's disease. (PNAS, published ahead of print November 22, 2010)

The sugar metabolism plays a central role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's.Compared to non-diabetic patients have type II diabetes have a significantly higher risk of developing Alzheimer's also. Scientists led by Susann Schweiger from the Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Genetics was in experiments with cell cultures and mice demonstrate that metformin activates an enzyme in the brain that can prevent cell death in Alzheimer's patients. Metformin is a drug that has been used for years for the treatment of type II diabetes. It affects one of the most important mechanisms that can lead to the development of Alzheimer's.

Schweiger metformin already knew from my own experience in treating patients with type II diabetes. "When cycling it occurred to me that metformin should work really well because of its mechanism of action in Alzheimer's disease," she says.Together with their working groups in Berlin and Dundee as well as a far-flung network of European collaborators who discovered it, that metformin exerts not only in patients with type II diabetes, but also in healthy individuals a protective function for the brain cells. When Alzheimer's patients are treated at an early stage of the disease with metformin, should also occur promising prophylactic and therapeutic effects, so the hope of the scientists. In order to examine this more closely, the researchers metformin are first tested in two different animal models of Alzheimer's disease. Then they hope to begin within the next two to five years with a clinical study.