Study shows that a drug for ALS may also help Alzheimer's disease

A drug that the FDA has green lit for ALS clinical trial treatment may also mitigate the mechanisms responsible for Alzheimer’s disease, a Northwestern Medicine study suggests.

“What our study demonstrates is that the same mechanism affects two totally different proteins in two totally different diseases. In both diseases, cells suffer from toxic protein buildup,” said William Klein, one of the study’s authors, in a press release. “It appears there is a common mechanism that gets rid of these proteins to prevent them from clustering…”

The researchers examined neuron cultures and then mice.

“Inflammation of the brain was prevented or greatly reduced by the treatment of NU-9. It stops the amyloid beta oligomer buildup, and stops the consequences of neuroinflammation, which causes a lot of damage in the brain. So, the drug is very powerful on two levels: cellular and whole animal,” said another author, William Klein in the release.