Scientists from the University of Cambridge have found that a drug to treat glaucoma (high intraocular pressure) may protect against the buildup of toxic proteins associated with Alzheimer's disease in the brain. The results of the animal study were published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology.
The authors of the work analyzed more than 1,400 medicinal compounds in zebrafish. The animals were genetically modified to mimic so-called tauopathies, diseases associated with the accumulation of plaques (aggregates) of tau proteins in the brain. This group of different forms of dementia includes Alzheimer's disease.
Scientists have found that drugs from the group of carbonic anhydrase inhibitors can protect against the accumulation of tau protein aggregates. They also mitigated signs of the disease in zebrafish and mice. One of the drugs in this group is the glaucoma drug methazolamide.
These drugs block the enzyme carbonic anhydrase, which regulates the level of acidity in the cell. As a result, lysosomes—“cellular waste incinerators”—move to the cell surface, where they fuse with the cell membrane and “spit out” tau.
The study was conducted on zebrafish due to their rapid maturity. The scientists' findings have yet to be tested in studies of more complex animals and humans.
