A diabetes drug may one day be used to treat Alzheimer’s disease after “significantly” reversing memory loss in mice, scientists believe.
Employed to treat type 2 diabetes, it helped cut the volume of amyloid plaques lined to the degenerative brain disorder, University of Lancashire researchers found.
It also raised levels of a chemical which helps brain cells function.
Prof Christian Holscher, who led the team, said: “Multiple receptor drugs have shown neuro-protective effects.
"Here a triple receptor shows promise as a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s.
"These very promising outcomes demonstrate the efficacy of these novel multiple receptor drugs that originally were developed to treat type 2 diabetes but have shown consistent neuro-protective effects in several studies.
"Clinical studies with an older version of this drug type already showed very promising results in people with Alzheimer's disease or with mood disorders.
He said more tests are needed.
Dr Doug Brown, of The Alzheimer’s Society, said: "With no new treatments in nearly 15 years, we need to find new ways of tackling Alzheimer's.
"It's imperative that we explore whether drugs developed to treat other conditions can benefit people with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia.
"This approach to research could make it much quicker to get promising new drugs to the people who need them.
"Although the benefits of these 'triple agonist' drugs have so far only been found in mice, other studies with existing diabetes drugs such as liraglutide have shown real promise for people with Alzheimer's, so further development of this work is crucial."
In the UK around 850,000 have dementia, mostly Alzheimer’s.
Type 2 diabetes is known to be a risk factor for Alzheimer's.
The tests used genetically modified mice who had been given genes linked to an inheritable form of the brain disease.