Drugs that quell brain inflammation reverse dementia

In a publication appearing today in the journal Science Translational Medicine, University of California, Berkeley, and Ben-Gurion University scientists report that senile mice given one such drug had fewer signs of brain inflammation and were better able to learn new tasks, becoming almost as adept as mice half their age. Drugs that tamp down inflammation in the brain could slow or even reverse the cognitive decline that comes with age. The successful treatment in mice supports a radical new view of what causes the confusion and dementia that often accompany aging. More and more research shows that, with age, the filtration system that prevents molecules or infectious organisms in the blood from leaking into the brain—the so-called blood-brain barrier—becomes leaky, letting in chemicals that cause inflammation and a cascade of cell death. After age 70, nearly 60% of adults have leaky blood- brain barriers, according to Friedman's magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies.

An accompanying paper by the two researchers and Dan Milikovsky of Ben-Gurion University shows that the inflammatory fog induced by a leaky blood-brain barrier alters the mouse brain's normal rhythms, causing microseizure-like events—momentary lapses in the normal rhythm within the hippocampus—that could produce some of the symptoms seen in degenerative brain diseases like Alzheimer's disease. Electroencephalograms (EEGs) revealed similar brain wave disruption, or paroxysmal slow wave events, in humans with epilepsy and with cognitive dysfunction, including Alzheimer's and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Together, the papers give doctors two biomarkers—leaky barriers detectable by MRI and abnormal brain rhythms detectable by EEG—that can be used to flag people with blood-brain barrier problems, as well as a potential drug to slow or reverse the consequences.

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