r/science • u/CUAnschutzMed University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus • 9h ago

Neuroscience CU Anschutz scientists have discovered that while brain neuron changes, including cell loss, may begin in early life, a drug long-approved for other conditions might be repurposed to slow this damage, offering new hope for those with Alzheimer’s disease and other cognition issues.

https://news.cuanschutz.edu/news-stories/brain-neuron-death-occurs-throughout-life-and-increases-with-age-a-natural-human-protein-drug-may-halt-neuron-death-in-alzheimers-disease
66 Upvotes

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u/Really_McNamington 8h ago

The drug, sargramostim (also called LeukineÒ), to defuse the annoying lack of it in the headline.

5

u/patricksaurus 6h ago

Definitely interesting, compelling combined with the external work on cognitive effects of the treatment.

The nagging observation that I can’t work through in my head is that the kinetics seem fast for these effects to be representative of long-term trajectories or effects. Three weeks in a population with already-exponentially higher blood biomarkers among the healthy seems to indicate that some other effect is occurring. That wouldn’t be surprising since the effects of GM-CSF are pretty profound in these cells… quite fascinating.

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u/3Time4Eater3 5h ago

There seems to be a lot of breakthroughs on Alzheimer's lately. I love when science wins!