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posted by janrinok on Thursday January 16 2020, @05:18PM   Printer-friendly
from the who-are-you? dept.

Antibiotics could be promising treatment for form of dementia:

Frontotemporal dementia is the second-most common dementia after Alzheimer's disease and the most common type of early onset dementia. It typically begins between ages 40 and 65 and affects the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, which leads to behavior changes, difficulty speaking and writing, and memory deterioration.

A subgroup of patients with frontotemporal dementia have a specific genetic mutation that prevents brain cells from making a protein called progranulin. Although progranulin is not widely understood, its absence is linked to the disease.

A group led by Haining Zhu, a professor in UK's Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, discovered that after aminoglycoside antibiotics were added to neuronal cells with this mutation, the cells started making the full-length progranulin protein by skipping the mutation.

"These patients' brain cells have a mutation that prevents progranulin from being made. The team found that by adding a small antibiotic molecule to the cells, they could 'trick' the cellular machinery into making it," said Matthew Gentry, a co-author of the study and the Antonio S. Turco Endowed Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry.

The researchers found two specific aminoglycoside antibiotics -- Gentamicin and G418 -- were both effective in fixing the mutation and making the functional progranulin protein. After adding Gentamicin or G418 molecules to the affected cells, the progranulin protein level was recovered up to about 50 to 60%.

Journal Reference:

Lisha Kuang, Kei Hashimoto, Eric J Huang, Matthew S Gentry, Haining Zhu. Frontotemporal dementia nonsense mutation of progranulin rescued by aminoglycosides. Human Molecular Genetics, 2020; DOI: 10.1093/hmg/ddz280


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday January 16 2020, @08:14PM (2 children)

    by sjames (2882) on Thursday January 16 2020, @08:14PM (#944206) Journal

    And so begins the mad search for something patented and expensive that works almost as well as the generic and has to be used instead for reasons.

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  • (Score: 2) by NickM on Thursday January 16 2020, @09:52PM (1 child)

    by NickM (2867) on Thursday January 16 2020, @09:52PM (#944259) Journal

    According to pubmed Gentamicin ain't gentle at all:

    Nephrotoxicity is one of the most important side effects and therapeutical limitations of aminoglycoside antibiotics, especially gentamicin. Despite rigorous patient monitoring, nephrotoxicity appears in 10-25% of therapeutic courses.

    from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20861826-new-insights-into-the-mechanism-of-aminoglycoside-nephrotoxicity-an-integrative-point-of-view/ [nih.gov]

    I would welcome a drugs that would have the same regenerative effect on progranulin¹ [alzforum.org] without the nephrotoxicity.

    1- I have learned a word today, yay !

    --
    I a master of typographic, grammatical and miscellaneous errors !
    • (Score: 2) by Booga1 on Friday January 17 2020, @06:37PM

      by Booga1 (6333) on Friday January 17 2020, @06:37PM (#944647)

      Healthy brain or healthy kidneys...pick one?
      I would much rather have to go to dialysis every day than lose my mind.