A team of researchers from the universities of Pennsylvania and Washington (USA) has discovered that the effects of common antidepressants prevent the symptoms of Alzheimer’s . The study has been published in the journal Science Translational Medicine .
Citalopram is a drug used since 1998 for the treatment of depression and it is precisely its components that stop the growth of the beta amyloid peptide , which clusters in plaques in the brain and triggers the development of Alzheimer’s disease , according to the researchers. researchers during the experiment carried out both in healthy humans (between 18 and 50 years old) and in mice genetically modified to develop Alzheimer’s.
Specifically, after exposure to citalopram, the level of beta amyloid in the interstitial fluid of the brain of mice with Alzheimer’s decreased in a dose-dependent manner by up to 25%. The effect of the drug stopped the growth of existing plaques and prevented new ones from forming . On the other hand, in the human experiment, those who took citalopram had a concentration of beta amyloid 38% lower than those who received placebo.
“In previous works, an association between the duration of antidepressant use and the amyloid load in the brains of elderly volunteers was observed by positron emission tomography (PET). Our new research goes one step further and tests the effect of citalopram on amyloid levels in the cerebrospinal fluid of young healthy subjects , which would have a major impact on preventing or delaying the progression of Alzheimer’s, ”says Yvette Sheline , lead author of the study.
