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Blood pressure drug shows promise for treating Parkinson’s and dementia in animal studies
A prescription drug to treat high blood pressure has shown promise against conditions such as Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and forms of dementia in studies carried out in mice and zebrafish at the University of Cambridge.
Blood pressure drug shows promise for treating Parkinson’s and dementia in animal studies. Photo: Lucas Vasques/Unsplash
A common feature of these diseases – collectively known as neurodegenerative diseases – is the build-up of misfolded proteins. These proteins, such as huntingtin in Huntington’s disease and tau in some dementias, form ‘aggregates’ that can cause irreversible damage to nerve cells in the brain.
In healthy individuals, the body uses a mechanism to prevent the build-up of such toxic materials. This mechanism is known as autophagy, or ‘self-eating’, and involves ‘Pac-Man’-like cells eating and breaking down the materials. However, in neurodegenerative diseases this mechanism is impaired and unable to clear the proteins building up in the brain.
In addition to searching for new drugs, scientists often look to re-purpose existing drugs. Scientists at the UK Dementia Research Institute and the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research at the University of Cambridge have shown in mice that felodipine, a hypertension drug, may be a candidate for re-purposing.
Epidemiological studies have already hinted at a possible link between the drug and reduced risk of Parkinson’s disease, but now the researchers have shown that it may be able to induce autophagy in several neurodegenerative conditions.
Felodipine was effective at reducing the build-up of aggregates in the mice with the Huntington’s and Parkinson’s disease mutations and in the zebrafish dementia model. The treated animals also showed fewer signs of the diseases.
Studies in mice often use doses that are much higher than those known to be safe to use in humans. Scientistss showed in the Parkinson’s mice that it is possible to show beneficial effects even at concentrations similar to those tolerated by humans.
This is the first time that we’re aware of that a study has shown that an approved drug can slow the build-up of harmful proteins in the brains of mice using doses aiming to mimic the concentrations of the drug seen in humans. As a result, the drug was able to slow down progression of these potentially devastating conditions and it should be trialled in patients. (University of Cambridge)
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