LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Researchers at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) has potentially found a new drug that could prevent Alzheimer's in people who are carrying a gene related to the disease.
The findings, which were published on Jan. 8 in Communications Biology, includes "discoveries of a druggable target and a drug candidate" by the research team, according to a press release.
Roughly 50-65% people who are diagnosed to have Alzheimer's disease inherit the Apolipoprotein E4 (APOEε4) gene, which is the so-called Alzheimer's gene. Around 25% people have at least one copy of the gene and "are three times as likely to develop the disease," while those with two copies only make up 2-3% of the population but are up to 15 times as likely to develop the disease.
Sue Griffin, Ph.D., who led the research team, said her team might be the first with new drug discoveries as it was the "first in 2018 to show how APOEε4 prevented brain cells from disposing of their waste products, known as lysosomal autophagy."
“Our series of discoveries related to APOEε4 and its detrimental role in Alzheimer’s pathogenesis are among the most impactful of my 50 years as a research scientist,” Griffin said. “No other research team has found a potential drug specifically for blocking the harmful effects of inherited APOEε4."
The research team will now conduct a large scale study on the drug candidate CBA2 and also test other potential drugs that may work.
Griffin said the hope is that people with one or two copies of the gene will use the drug regularly to "significantly reduce the risk" of developing the disease.
Meenakshisundaram Balasubramaniam Ph.D., who is on the team, reportedly built the "first known full-length structure" of the APOEε4 protein in 2017. And it was that work that led to discovery, according to UAMS.
He did this by using computational modeling techniques and bioinformatics and Griffin credits his work for increasing the rate at which they can screen drug compounds. The research team can reportedly screen around 800,000 compounds in two days while other institutions have manually screen them.
The work done by the team at UAMS is thanks in part to a $2.35 million grant from the National Institute of Health.