Drug for Diabetes Could Fight Dementia

Wed, 01 Jun 2011
A team of Irish scientists are forerunners in the race to discover a cure for dementia .

Alzheimers Research UK has given these scientists a £100,000 grant which is going to be used over the next two years to pinpoint how an existing diabetes drug is going to could help the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

The drug to be focused on is known as liraglutide or Victoza, presently used to aid the treatment of two different kinds of diabetes .

The most recent funding round follows research undertaken in 2010 which demonstrated "promising implications" in the quest for a cure to this chronic condition.

The University of Ulster team have uncovered that the drug can improve brain cell growth and protect formation of memory in mice, as well as lowering levels of amyloid in the brain which is a key protein in Alzheimer’s.

The research leader stated that he focused on the diabetes drug as those who have Alzheimer’s frequently have diabetes too. Hence, he came up with the concept of testing the drug on Alzheimer’s models with some fascinating results

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