Researchers at the Institute of Neurosciences in Barcelona have developed a novel compound that could transform the way we treat Alzheimer’s disease, Yahoo reports.
The compound in question is called FLAV-27. According to the researchers, it targets changes in gene expression that fuel the disease’s progression in multiple ways, not just via protein plaques.
Current drugs for Alzheimer’s mostly focus on removing amyloid-beta plaques, the specialists noted. The new compound takes a fundamentally different approach, instead targeting a specific enzyme to therapeutically reprogram the epigenome of neurons—a series of molecular marks that can be added to or removed from DNA, to change the way genes work.
The article notes that drugs which target amyloid-beta plaques help slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease when treatment is started early, but there is still no proven way to reverse cognitive decline from the condition. However, the development of FLAV-27 may help pave the way for such a therapy.
Recently, American scientists identified a biomarker linked to schizophrenia. Its discovery could lead to new treatments for this mental disorder.