Alzheimer’s prevention breakthrough found in decades-old seizure drug
Fox News • • health
Key Points:
- A study by Northwestern University suggests that the anti-seizure drug levetiracetam may prevent the formation of toxic amyloid beta peptides linked to Alzheimer’s disease, potentially offering a new preventive approach.
- Levetiracetam was shown to inhibit amyloid-beta 42 production in animal models, cultured human neurons, and post-mortem brain tissue from individuals with Down syndrome, who are at high risk for Alzheimer’s.
- The drug would need to be administered very early—up to 20 years before amyloid-beta 42 levels rise—to be effective, as it cannot reverse damage once dementia has developed.
- Analysis of prior clinical data indicated that Alzheimer’s patients taking levetiracetam experienced a modest delay in cognitive decline progression compared to
