The Korea Brain Research Institute (KBRI, President Suh Pann-gil) announced on the 21st that the research team led by Hyang-sook Huh, Ph.D., a senior researcher in the Degenerative Brain Disease Research Group, first discovered that the drug ‘abemacicli mesylate’, which is used as a treatment for breast cancer, is also effective in treating Alzheimer’s disease. .
The research team identified that Abemasilclip is a multi-target drug (reduction of amyloid plaques, inhibition of tau lesions, suppression of brain inflammation and improvement of memory) aimed at treating Alzheimer’s disease by controlling ‘CDK4/6’, a gene related to cell cycle regulation. .
The research team confirmed that the formation of dendrites in neurons was promoted and short-term memory and recognition memory were restored in an Alzheimer’s disease animal model injected with this drug. In addition, it was found that brain inflammation, amyloidopathy, and tauopathy were suppressed by regulating the expression of specific genes (tau kinase DYRK1A and p-GSK3β) in a dementia animal model in which amyloid or tau related to Alzheimer’s disease was overexpressed.
In addition, when abemaciclib regulates the hyperactivity of glial cells induced by amyloid beta or ‘LPS (a drug that artificially induces inflammation in model animals)’, it inhibits the ‘DYRK1A/STAT3’ signaling system, causing brain inflammation. It was also found to inhibit the expression of Cain.
Although there have been previous studies showing that the expression of the ‘CDK4’ gene is increased in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients compared to normal people, and that ‘CDK4/6’ gene control regulates peripheral inflammation, studies on the correlation between a drug called abemaciclib and Alzheimer’s disease have not been conducted. This is the first time. In the future, it plans to focus on research on commercialization and industrialization of abemaciclib.
Dr. Heo Hyang-sook said, “This study confirms the possibility that the anticancer drug abemaciclib can also be used as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, a representative degenerative brain disease. said.
This study, in which researcher Lee Hyun-joo participated as the first author, was recently published in the online edition of ‘Pharmacological Research’, an international academic journal.
Daegu = Reporter Jeong Jae-hoon [email protected]