Could Diabetes Medications Help Curb Alzheimer's Disease?

THURSDAY, November 1, 2018 (HealthDay News) – Patients with Alzheimer's disease taking antidiabetic drugs may have fewer signs of dementia in the brain than similar patients who do not take these medications, according to a new study.

Specifically, the post-mortem study found that people taking diabetes medications had fewer abnormalities in the small blood vessels of their brains and less abnormal genetic activity.

"The results of this study are important because they bring us new knowledge for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease," said Vahram Haroutunian, lead author of the study, professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine Mount Sinai New York.

Previous studies on brain tissue have shown that the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease and diabetes exhibited fewer Alzheimer's lesions than those of people with Alzheimer's disease without diabetes .

An Alzheimer's expert said the study highlighted the relationship between cardiovascular health and brain health.

The results "remind us of how important it is to keep vascular risk factors under control as we get older," said Dr. Luca Giliberto. He is an assistant professor at the Litwin-Zucker Center for Alzheimer's Disease and Memory Impairment at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, N.Y.

In the new autopsied brain study, Haroutunian and his colleagues developed a way to separate tiny blood vessels (capillaries) from the brain from adjacent brain tissue.

They used this method for the first time in the brains of 34 people diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and type 2 diabetes treated with standard antidiabetic drugs.

The researchers then compared these findings to the examination of 30 brains of people with Alzheimer's disease who did not have diabetes and 19 brains of people who presented none of these two diseases.

The study focused on modifications of some genetic "markers" closely related to appropriate brain signaling.

According to the researchers, about half of these markers were weaker in the vessels and brain tissue of patients with both Alzheimer's disease and diabetes. And the majority of unhealthy genetic modifications usually seen in Alzheimer's disease were absent in patients who had taken antidiabetic drugs.

All of this suggests that diabetes medications have a protective effect on the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease, researchers said, which could strengthen the search for effective treatments.

"Most modern treatments for Alzheimer's disease target amyloid plaques and have failed to effectively treat the disease," said Haroutunian in a press release published in Mount Sinai.

But the new study was about "insulin-based drugs and diabetes like metformin, [which are] Approved by the FDA and safely administered to millions of people, "he said.

The new study suggests that these drugs could "have a beneficial effect on people with Alzheimer's disease," Haroutunian said. "This opens up opportunities for conducting research trials on people using drugs that are similar or have similar effects on the biological pathways of the brain and the types of cells identified in this study."

For his part, Giliberto said the results "are not surprising" because experts have long noted the links between the effects of diabetes on blood glucose and the health of blood vessels and brain health.

But he added that the study did not prove that these problems were the cause of Alzheimer's disease or whether anti-diabetic drugs could stop or stop the brain waste once started.

However, "the treatment of chronic hyperglycemia will result in a reduction in cerebral palsy," explained Giliberto. For people with Alzheimer's disease, this "could improve cognitive performance and quality of life," he said.

Dr. Satjit Bhusri is a cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. Reviewing the study, he stated that she "established a relationship between the brain's blood vessels and Alzheimer's disease."

The findings could "open the door to a new pathway that could be a therapeutic use in patients with Alzheimer's disease," said Bhusri.

The report was published online November 1 in the journal PLOS One.

More information

The Alzheimer's Association offers more on Alzheimer's disease.

SOURCES: Luca Giliberto, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Litwin-Zucker Center for Alzheimer's Disease and Memory Impairment at the Feinstein Institute of Medical Research, Manhasset, N.Y .; Satjit Bhusri, MD, cardiologist, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York; Mount Sinai Health System, November 1, 2018 Press Release