New Alzheimer’s drug shows promise to prevent buildup of tau proteins in brain cells

New Delhi, Oct 3: In a promising breakthrough, an international team of researchers from the UK, US, and Japan has developed a new Alzheimer’s drug that effectively prevents the build-up of Tau proteins -- a key driver of neurodegeneration.

The drug, a peptide inhibitor called RI-AG03 blocked both Tau aggregation ‘hotspots’ for the first time in both lab and fruit fly studies.

While Tau proteins play a crucial role in maintaining the structure and function of brain cells, these, however, malfunction in Alzheimer's disease. The proteins clump together to form long and twisting fibrils, which when accumulated create neurofibrillary tangles.

The masses of twisted Tau proteins then clog the brain cells, preventing them from getting the nutrients leading to their death. The more brain cells die, memory, thinking, and behaviour become increasingly impaired, leading to the cognitive decline seen in Alzheimer’s.

The research, published in the Alzheimer’s and Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, focussed on two specific ‘hotspots’ of the Tau protein where this clumping tends to happen.

While current treatments target one or the other of these hotspots, RI-AG03 uniquely targets and blocks both.

“There are two regions of the Tau protein that act like a zipper to enable it to aggregate,” said lead author Amritpal Mudher, Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Southampton.