Vertex's "old drug" for Alzheimer's disease gets positive results in animal experiments

According to a recent study by a team of professors at McGill University in Canada, Vertex's "old drug" delays cognitive impairment in mice before alzheimer's symptoms begin and age.
study was published September 11 in Nature Communications.
previous studies, Dr. LeBlanc has identified a correlation between Caspase-6 enzymes and cognitive decline, but has had to look for other potential therapeutic candidates because there are no Capase-6 inhibitors.
she thought of VX-765, which, by lowering Caspase-1 levels, could prevent the production of Caspase-6 and other proteases that destroy neurons.
photo source: Resources In the experiment, the mice the researchers used showed signs of Alzheimer's disease at age 4 months.
to determine whether there was a correlation, the researchers began treating mice with VX-765 at age 2 months.
treatment programme lasted for 1 month and stopped when the mice reached the age of 3 months.
, the researchers examined the cognitive decline of four-month-old mice and continued these assessments monthly until they reached the age of 8 months.
results showed that mice in the treatment group behaved normally during the first test and showed higher cognitive abilities than placebos through follow-up tests.
that even after the age of 8 months, some mice that received VX765 retained cognitive function and had significant delays in symptoms.
could provide the basis for future Alzheimer's disease prevention and treatment.
LeBlanc, an 8-month-old mouse, is still impressive.
extraterred to humans, it would be about 10 to 15 years.
means that if someone is known to have Alzheimer's disease, it can be treated with the drug before severe symptoms begin to appear.
may need to take the drug for a year or two, then stop treatment, and perhaps the patient's symptoms will be delayed for 10 years.
to translate the results into human trials will be a huge project.
But Dr LeBlanc is not worried about the safety of the drug.
in her previous trials, VX-765 showed good tolerance, which was one of the reasons she finally decided to use VX-765 in the study.
resources: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . An old Vertex drug gets new life as an Alzheimer's treatment, but human studies far still off. Sept 11, 2020. Retrieved Sept 12, 2020 from s.2. Joseph Flores et al. (2020) Pre-symptomatic Caspase-1 resedor delays cognitive decline in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease and aging. Nature Communications,