An experimental Alzheimer’s disease drug made by Prana has been shown to be very beneficial for mice engineered to have the disease.
PBT2 is the name of the drug that in clinical studies showed the ability to improve patients’ ability to plan, and remember.
The drug also showed the ability to reduce the level of a protein found in the spinal fluid of patients with the brain degenerative disease.
“It reduced the level of beta amyloid in the spinal fluid. We think spinal fluid is the closest measure to what is happening in the brain,” said Dr. Jeffrey Cummings of the University of California Los Angeles, chairman of Prana’s research and development advisory board.
A protein that builds up on the brain of Alzheimer’s patients called beta amyloid slowly eats away at the brain, impairing a person’s cognitive ability. There is no cure for the disease which is eventually fatal.
This experimental drug that has shown so much promise works by not allowing the protein plaque to interact with copper and zinc in the brain which can lead to bad protein forming.
The researchers hope that similar results will be seen when the drug is tested on human subjects.
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