According to Tyrolean researchers, cancer drugs could also be used to treat Alzheimer’s in the future. A team headed by Jerome Mertens in the Neural Aging Laboratory at the Institute for Molecular Biology at the University of Innsbruck succeeded in proving that Alzheimer’s nerve cells undergo the same metabolic changes as cancer cells. Drugs used in cancer treatment could cause Alzheimer’s nerve cells to stay in their adult state for longer.
“Our previous studies have already shown that Alzheimer’s neurons are very similar to cancer cells, with the big difference being that cancer cells grow out of control and Alzheimer’s neurons die out of control,” explained Larissa Traxler, a post-doc at the Institute of Molecular Biology, in a press release. In the course of the work, which was published on Friday in the specialist journal “Cell Metabolism”, the team focused specifically on the metabolism of Alzheimer’s nerve cells and “compared this with the very specific and well-researched metabolism of cancer cells”. Traxler further out.
These studies would have confirmed said similarity. Those responsible for the study spoke of the so-called “Warburg effect” – a change in the metabolism of cancer cells from the adult to the embryonic stage. This also occurs in Alzheimer’s nerve cells. “Alzheimer’s neurons go through a very similar switch to embryonic metabolism as cancer cells do. However, since cell death is initiated in nerve cells as soon as they begin to divide, they die off differently than cancer cells, which multiply uncontrollably,” says the microbiologist .
In cancer therapy there are already active ingredients that specifically target the “Warburg effect”. For this purpose, the focus is in particular on the protein pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2). PKM2 is increasingly produced in cancer cells as well as in Alzheimer’s neurons and is considered to be one of the main regulators in the switch to embryonic metabolism. According to Traxler, active ingredients that inhibit the Warburg effect in cancer cells would also cause the nerve cells in Alzheimer’s nerve cells to retain their adult state longer. The researchers are now focusing on optimizing these active ingredients for aging nerve cells and adapting them so that they can optimally reach the brain and act there against Alzheimer’s, it said.