Antiretroviral drug used to prevent HIV or hepatitis B shows promise for Alzheimer’s disease treatment in early clinical trials
Posted on: Wednesday, August 7th, 2024
A pilot study led by scientists from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) shows promise for people with mild cognitive changes treated with lamivudine, a Food and Drug Administration-approved antiretroviral drug. The study reveals significant improvement in neurodegeneration and inflammation.
Lamivudine is an antiviral medicine that prevents human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or hepatitis B virus from multiplying in the body.
Scientists from UT Health San Antonio’s Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases and the Sam and Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies developed the clinical trial to see if the drug could benefit people with cognitive impairment.
“It’s an exciting time for Alzheimer’s disease research with many promising trials coming out,” said A. Campbell Sullivan, PsyD, ABPP-CN, clinical associate professor in the department of neurology at the Biggs Institute and the study’s co-principal investigator. “Disease-modifying treatments for dementia are limited and can have worrisome side effects. Our results show that treatment with lamivudine was safe and suggests
a beneficial effect for those with early Alzheimer’s disease.”
The study included 12 participants, aged 52 to 83 years old, with mild cognitive impairment. They were placed on lamivudine for six months with blood and cerebrospinal fluid collected at baseline and following discontinuation of treatment to study biomarkers. Cerebrospinal fluid is the liquid around the brain and spinal cord. The fluid serves as cushion for the brain and spinal cord and helps doctors identify or rule out various diseases.
Designed to evaluate the safety and feasibility of using antiretroviral therapy for Alzheimer’s disease, the study surprised researchers because they were able to find significant improvement in two markers of neurodegeneration and the reduction of inflammation. This provided encouraging results that they hope to explore in future studies.
Antiviral drugs like lamivudine stop the virus from replicating and inserting itself into the genome. In Alzheimer’s disease, lamivudine may stop the activation of retrotransposons, which the body views as an endogenous virus.
Over the past few decades, Sullivan said there has been exciting developments in biomarker identification and brain imaging, meaning they can detect problems earlier, especially in patients with a genetic predisposition for the condition. When detected early, problems may be kept at bay longer or possibly prevented from developing.
To read more about the study, visit: Antiretroviral drug shows potential for Alzheimer’s disease treatment in early clinical trials – UT Health San Antonio (uthscsa.edu)