NIA Study Identifies FDA-Approved Drugs That May Also Be Helpful for Dementia

A study by U.S. National Institute on Aging (NIA) researchers in Alzheimer's and Dementia: Translational Research and Clinical Interventions explored whether medications currently used to treat conditions other than dementia can help prevent or treat Alzheimer's disease. The research involved a new, alternative method to traditional drug discovery, which first examines data from large populations who had already been treated with those drugs for other disorders. The team initially identified a network of roughly 20 biological pathways linked to abnormal brain metabolism in people with Alzheimer's and related dementias, which may precede or influence the brain changes that lead to dementia. They then identified 35 Food and Drug Administration-approved medicines that might be effective against the network of 20 pathways, winnowing the list down to 15 best candidates for further analysis. The researchers will analyze data collected during routine healthcare for the effects of a candidate drug on dementia development, and estimate the occurrence of dementia for people treated with the candidate drug and compare it to those receiving another drug for the same disorder. If a medication seems to reduce the risk or severity of Alzheimer's and related dementias, scientists could perform lab tests to determine how the drug works against dementia, and the drugs could eventually be tested in clinical human trials.