The therapeutic response to diseases related to aging may be within reach of researchers. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the start-up TyrNovo indicate that they have taken an important step in the treatment of Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and even Parkinson’s. Their hope lies in a barbaric name, the NT219. This compound could inhibit the aging process to protect the brain from neurodegenerative diseases, without affecting the patient’s lifespan.
The Israeli team started from the observation that these three pathologies (Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s) have in common that they are triggered by the accumulation of toxic proteins in the brain from an advanced age. This aggregation results in a deregulation of the aging process which disrupts the protective mechanisms of the brain, making it vulnerable to diseases.
The researchers therefore tested NT219 on worms and human cells in the laboratory. This compound managed to prevent the abnormal formation of protein blocks.
In the scientific journal Aging cell, the researchers explain that this opens up a way to treat neurodegenerative diseases, for which no curative treatment exists.
Research is progressing on these pathologies linked to aging. Recently, Americans announced that they had successfully experimented an anti-cancer drug on mice with Alzheimer’s disease.
But for this American study as for that of the Israeli researchers, none has yet succeeded in passing the stage of the clinical trial.
