WASHINGTON – A provocative new theory suggests that one root cause of Alzheimer’s disease is linked to diabetes – a theory about to be tested in thousands of Alzheimer’s patients given the diabetes drug Avandia in hopes of slowing brain decay.
It’s a scary scenario: Alzheimer’s already is expected to skyrocket as the population grays, rising from 4.5 million sufferers today to 14 million by 2050. If the new theory is right, the nation’s current obesity-fueled epidemic of Type 2 diabetes could worsen that toll.
But proponents see potential good news: If diabetic-like changes in the way brain cells use sugar to generate energy truly trigger Alzheimer’s in at least some patients, then maybe doctors could intervene early and slow down that degeneration.
A preliminary experiment involving 511 Alzheimer’s patients found signals that Avandia might help – albeit in people who lack a gene that spurs more aggressive Alzheimer’s.
Avandia maker GlaxoSmithKline is poised to open three Phase III clinical trials this summer to test whether the diabetes drug, also called rosiglitazone, might protect certain patients’ brains.
Diabetes has long been listed a risk factor for Alzheimer’s later in life because it damages blood vessels that supply the brain.
The Avandia research suggests a more insidious connection: that Alzheimer’s can be silently triggered when brain cells can’t properly use their main fuel, sugar – just as Type 2 diabetes is triggered when insulin gradually loses its ability to process sugar body-wide.
“When they’re in an insulin-resistant state, it does not just affect the body, it affects the brain as well,” said Suzanne Craft of the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System, who led the initial research.
There are 18 million Type 2 diabetics, considered to have two to five times a nondiabetic’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s if they live into their 60s and 70s, when Alzheimer’s typically strikes, Craft said. Type 2 diabetes often leads to heart disease or other ailments that kill before then.
Avandia, and the competing drug Actos, treat Type 2 diabetes by resensitizing the body to insulin.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
