Medicine recycling from former medicinesTreatment of Alzheimer's diseasecould be repurposed according to new research results. This means that damage to the blood vessels in people who are overweight or suffer from type 2 diabetes can be prevented or even reversed. Many people suffer from a number of illnesses. Medicine refers to some of these as metabolic syndrome. These include type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and obesity. This can cause blood vessels to stiffen, putting patients at increased risk of heart attack or stroke.
Medication recycling is used
In a breakthrough, scientists from the University of Leeds and the University of Dundee have discovered a key mechanism that triggers changes in blood vessels that can ultimately lead to cardiovascular disease. This happens when people start overproducing an enzyme called BACE1. Accordingly, this in turn produces a protein called beta-amyloid. Elevated levels of beta-amyloid are associated with damage to the lining of blood vessels, the endothelium. This disrupts the normal functioning of blood vessels and leads to high blood pressure and atherosclerosis, as well as the formation of plaque along the walls of blood vessels.
The researchers examined the effect of an experimental compound called M-3, which stops the action of BACE1. In studies of mice that were obese or had diabetes, they were shown to not only stop but also reverse disease in the blood vessels. The attached images were taken from laser scans of the skin of diabetic mice. They show blood flow through the small blood vessels in the skin. The blue colors mean low blood flow. Red, yellow and green colors represent higher blood flow.
Medical perspectives
The therapeutic effects of experimental drug recycling were pronounced, with this reversing disease progression in severely damaged blood vessels. This opens the possibility that scientists can develop a drug that inhibits the effects of BACE1. It may even suggest that it could not only stop but also reverse the progression of disease in the blood vessels.
BACE1 has previously attracted the attention of the pharmaceutical industry because of its role in the development of another serious disease, Alzheimer's disease. The active ingredient is directly linked to the development of beta-amyloid in the brains of people who died from this disease. Pharmaceutical companies have begun developing BACE1 inhibitors - so far they have been ineffective in fighting Alzheimer's.
These results therefore raise the exciting possibility that existing drugs, which unfortunately have not shown benefit in clinical trials for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, may instead be used to treat vascular disease in this group of people.Through diabetesDamage to blood vessels caused accelerates and worsens heart and circulatory diseases. These results therefore identify a new route already targeted by drug recycling for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.
