New Life In Cancer Drugs Targretin, Tasigna For Alzheimer's, Study Finds
By Cyndi Root
New research has found that cancer drugs Targretin and Tasigna may be effective in treating Alzheimer’s Disease. Researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington have found that amyloid beta proteins are not responsible for dementia but that tau protein dysfunction causes neurodegeneration. Valeant’s Targretin (bexarotene) and Novartis’s Tasigna (nilotinib) may be able to help fight tau protein dysfunction.
When tau is abnormal, proteins accumulate inside the neurons while the cell tries to get rid of them to limit the toxic effects inside the cell. When the amyloid beta proteins are not pushed out, they destroy the cell. Because they’re not able to push out the dysfunctioning tau proteins and the amyloid beta proteins, the cell dies. Tim Parry, Alzheimer’s Research U.K., said in an article in the U.K.’s Sunday Express, “Understanding why nerve cells die in Alzheimer’s is a key goal in the search for treatments.”
Cancer Drugs for Alzheimer’s
The new research is published in the Molecular Neurodegeneration journal. By reintroducing properly functioning tau proteins, scientists hope to prevent the amyloid beta cells from sticking to the plaque or preventing plaque from growing. The Georgetown researchers state that some cancer drugs may be helpful in addressing toxic tau proteins. Bexarotene showed promise in a 2102 study and Nilotinib, a treatment for leukemia, can help the neurons force the “garbage” out of the cell and clear the build-up, the Sunday Express reports.
Novartis’ Tasigna (nilotinib) is approved for adult patients with Philadelphia chromosome positive chronic myeloid leukemia (Ph+ CML). The orally administered kinase inhibitor was first approved in 2007. While scientists may formulate, administer, or combine the drug differently in tau protein trials, the adverse hematologic reactions commonly found in the leukemia trials were myelosuppression: thrombocytopenia, neutropenia, and anemia.
Future Directions
Authors of the new study provide some recommendations and future directions.
They say that targeting the common processes of tau and other protein aggregation would help a wide variety of neurodegenerative disorders, particularly those with cognitive deficits. While the interaction between proteins is not clear, investigators can proceed with finding biomarkers for diagnosing neurodegenerative disorders. The cerebrospinal fluid is a likely place to find biomarkers, and scientists can use the ratios among the proteins to determine if pathology might be present.