A group of scientists from Bengaluru headed by Professor T Govindaraju, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) have done a discover for the potential cure of Alzheimer’s disease, which is the major cause for dementia globally.
Their findings are about a small molecule, named as TGR 63, which is depicted to have the ability to destroy the mechanism which makes the neurons dysfunctional in the Alzheimer’s disease. The research was in-process for a period of 10 years, and its findings and results were released in the journal publication ‘Advanced Therapeutics’.
Prof Govindaraju said, “After identifying the molecule, we started with a tube experiment in cellular models. We treated an Alzheimer’s affected animal model and a healthy mouse with the same drug. We detected that the molecule is significantly reducing amyloid aggregates which resulted in a reversal of the cognitive decline in the animal.”
He further elaborated, “Under some adverse physiological conditions, amyloid-beta a peptide clumps into toxic aggregates in the brain which results in volume and mass of the brain decreasing significantly disrupting the neural connections causing cognitive decline.”
Regarding the status of the drug, he said, “Trials on animal model is over. We have also done toxicology studies. Minimal and advanced toxicology studies are pending before moving on to human trials.”
About the required funding, Govindaraju said, “We are looking for a big pharmaceutical company or investors to partner with us.”
He further said, “It was with the Government’s funding that we have reached so far.We received Swarnajayanti fellowship five years ago which was a very huge financial support to the research.”
Govindaraju stated, “In the US and Europe heavy funding is going into the research for a drug for Alzheimer’s but one drug is failing clinical trials every month due to side effects of those drugs.. Some researchers have done immunotherapy using antibodies but they got mixed results that could not pass clinical trials,” he said speaking about the treatment research scenario in the other countries.
As of 2013, Alzheimer’s cases have increased up to 71 per cent, and globally, Alzheimer’s disease is responsible for causing 70 to 80 per cent of the total dementia.
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