Cancer Drug Combats Alzheimer’s Disease

The drug bexarotene is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for use in cutaneous T cell lymphoma.  Rada Koldamova, from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health (Pennsylvania, USA), and colleagues report that bexarotene significantly improves cognitive deficits, in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s Disease. The team demonstrated that bexarotene decreased the amyloid beta peptides present in the interstitial fluid that surrounds brain cells.  The mice with the Alzheimer’s gene mutations expressing human APOE3 or APOE4 were able to perform as well in cognitive tests as their non-Alzheimer’s counterparts 10 days after beginning treatment with bexarotene.