You never know when someone in an obscure lab in some university basement will discover some-thing new and exciting about an old friend. It appears Rosemary and Sage may be ace Alzheimer’s fighters!
Who knew? The principle flavours of Festive Feast fave Roast Turkey – Sage and Rosemary – may also be next to take centre stage in the fight against Alzheimers Diesase!
Stumbled over it
Scientists at the Scripps Institute are working backwards from a new drug they’ve developed to fight inflammation and oxidative stress. They think they’ve stumbled over a new drug that could help com-bat Alzheimer’s disease…
What they did
Earlier this year, the team published a research paper in which they reported discovering a new com-pound, diAcCA, derived from carnosic acid (CA). It’s a natural antioxidant found in rosemary and sage, and it’s already known to reduce inflammation and oxidative stress.
Just to so happens those two related conditions are also closely related to the development of Alz-heimer’s Disease.
So, they went back to the beginning and designed series of experiments to specificically see how it be used to treat Alhheimer’s. And were they urprised!
How it works
The authors explained in a statement that carnosic acid works by activating enzymes in the body’s ‘natural defense system’. In its purest state, this acid is too unstable to serve as a viable drug therapy. However, they managed to create a stable form known as diAcCA, which they noted, once consumed, converts to carnosic acid in the gut and is then absorbed into the bloodstream.
What they found
Their new work, published in the journal Antioxidants, demonstrated, that in mouse models, diAcCA could deliver therapeutic doses of carnosic acid to the brain, resulting in improved, “memory and synaptic density.”
“We [performed] multiple different tests of memory, and they were all improved with the drug,” study Senior Author, Dr Stuart Lipton, added. “And it didn’t just slow down the decline; it improved virtually back to normal.”
Built-in safeguards
Their analysis also revealed a significant decrease in general inflammation in the brain following treatment. But more importantly, the researchers discovered that their new drug also acted only in certain parts of the brain already known combat inflammation, thereby limiting side effects.
The takeaway
As with many new lab-formulated drugs, diAcCA has only been tested on mice thus far. But the re-searchers have high confidence that it will prove safe and effective for use in humans.
According to Lipton, DiAcCA has the potential to work well in tandem with other Alzheimer’s treat-ments, adding that “it could make existing amyloid [plaque] antibody treatments work better by taking away or limiting their side effects.”
He’s not stopping at Alzheimer’s, though. Lipton hopes to explore its use to fight other inflammatory disorders, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and Parkinson’s disease in the future, as well.
My take
If diAcCA is all it appears to be, it may turn out to constitute a whole new stealth treatment for a var-iety of currently problematic chronic and hard-to-treat conditions that cost world-wide heath care systems billions a year to fight, and millions to research therapies for.
Maybe not a ‘magic bullet’, as I often warn about promising new medications, but a very promising lead in developing powerful new treatments!
~ Maggie J.