A general anesthetic has been found to have the potentially added benefit of stimulating a neuroprotective effect against Alzheimer’s disease.
Xenon is a colorless, odorless noble gas used for many purposes in science, but a recent study in mice found it stimulated the brain’s resident immune system, which can protect against Alzheimer’s, leading to reduced neuroinflammation, minimized brain atrophy, and promoted protective neuronal states.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most prevalent neurodegenerative disease in humans. Believed to be caused by the build-up of toxic proteins called tau and beta-amyloid in the brain, drugs that clear these snags haven’t been able to slow the progression of the disease. As a result, neither the driver nor the cure is well-understood.
Microglia, the brain’s most common immune cell, play a critical role in preventing cognitive decline throughout life, and coupled with cerebral spinal fluid, actually help remove tau and amyloid proteins.
Inhaled Xenon gas was found in laboratory work at Brigham and Women’s Hospital to treat a mouse model of Alzheimer’s in which one group was suffering from a build-up of tau, and a second from a build-up of beta-amyloid.
Able to cross the blood-brain barrier, Xenon gas seemed to perk the mice right up, which began to become particularly active in the building and maintaining of their nests. Post-trial examinations found that the gas induced and increased a protective microglial response typical of the kind that clears tau and beta-amyloid proteins.
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“It is a very novel discovery showing that simply inhaling an inert gas can have such a profound neuroprotective effect,” said senior and co-corresponding author Oleg Butovsky, PhD and director of the lab where the research took place at Brigham and Women’s.
“One of the main limitations in the field of Alzheimer’s disease research and treatment is that it is extremely difficult to design medications that can pass the blood-brain barrier—but Xenon gas does. We look forward to seeing this novel approach tested in humans.”
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“It is exciting that in both animal models that model different aspects of Alzheimer’s disease, amyloid pathology in one model and tau pathology in another model, that Xenon had protective effects in both situations,” said senior and co-corresponding author David M. Holtzman, MD.
Healthy volunteers are currently being enrolled at the hospital for a phase 1 trial on dosage and safety. Sci Tech Daily reports the team is also devising technologies to help use Xenon gas more efficiently as well as potentially recycle it.
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