Scientists said a novel compound can arrest early stages of Alzheimer’s disease in mice brains, setting the stage for a possible cure.
Scientists at Northwestern University used a novel compound to arrest early stages of Alzheimer’s disease in mice — setting the stage, if all goes well, for a groundbreaking treatment in which the debilitating condition can be controlled like high cholesterol.
The researchers discovered an unknown subtype of a protein in the brain which can lead to Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new paper the team published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, and they demonstrated that their new novel compound, dubbed NU-9, can attack this brain protein and stop the disease from taking hold — in mice, at least.
“Most people are used to monitoring their cholesterol levels,” said Richard Silverman, a chemistry professor at Northwestern who coauthored the paper and invented NU-9, in a university statement. “If you have high cholesterol, it doesn’t mean that you will have a heart attack soon.
