A new study from the School of Pharmacy at the University of Waterloo reports on Apr. 9 that combining current Alzheimer's medications with small molecules derived from micronutrients in foods like grapes, berries, peanuts, and turmeric could be a safer and more effective way to treat the disease.
Alzheimer's disease is the main cause of dementia, affecting nearly 750,000 people in Canada. The number is expected to rise to one million by 2030. Current treatments for Alzheimer's can only relieve symptoms and have no cure. Anti-amyloid antibody therapies are used to slow the progression but carry risks such as brain swelling and bleeding.
Researchers combined amyloid-destroying small molecules with anti-amyloid antibodies already approved for use in treating Alzheimer's. They found this approach neutralized protein clumping in the brain that leads to cognitive decline.
"We already know the small molecules resveratrol or curcumin, which are found in some common foods, block the buildup of amyloid," said Dr. Praveen Nekkar Rao, a professor at Waterloo's School of Pharmacy. "What's new and exciting is our combination of these molecules with the anti-amyloid antibodies. This approach could allow clinicians to use lower doses of antibodies, potentially reducing the risk of serious treatment-related side effects." Nekkar Rao also said: "I was inspired by chemotherapy, which involves taking multiple medications for effective treatment. Alzheimer's is a complex disease, but there are very few combination therapy approaches. Our results show that the way forward is definitely combination therapy."
The researchers caution against self-medicating with resveratrol or curcumin because reaching therapeutic levels would require consuming unsafe amounts of these compounds.
The next phase will focus on designing drugs that reach the brain more effectively and work alongside antibody treatments.
