A new could boost and fight , specifically , according to led by researchers at the University of Texas. The novel nasal spray is expected to , with the study showing that it broke apart tangles of tau proteins in the brains of mice that were tested in the study. The drug is also reportedly effective at clearing similar tangles that appear between neurons in human brains.
It was specifically designed to target and destroy toxic buildups of the protein that are known to lead to or contribute to dementia, specifically Alzheimer's. Research indicates that the buildups can harm and kill brain cells, hence why so many researchers and pharmaceutical companies are attempting to produce drugs that can help alleviate the buildups and potentially cure or reduce the symptoms of Alzheimer's. The struggle when developing this new medicine, however, was figuring out how it could break through the blood-brain barrier and start working in the brain's cells, reported.
The solution ended up being packaging the medicine into tiny bubbles, which are able to slip past cell membranes, it was reported. Neuroscientist Sagar Gaikwad and his team explained the method and then tried the medicine model on the mice with success. In the mice, a single spray resulted in improved cognitive functions after just two weeks.
But whether the medicine would have the same effect on humans remains to be seen, as the biology of both creatures is different, and humans are obviously much larger than mice. University o.
