2024.07.XX - Alzheimer’s drug may someday help save lives

Title: Alzheimer’s drug may someday help save lives by inducing a state of “suspended animation” Caption for blue image: When the scientists administered DNP alone (panel 2), it was distributed throughout the tadpoles' bodies (blue). But when they added their nanocarrier-formulated DNP (panel 1), the drug was concentrated in the animals' brains, as indicated by the area surrounded by white dashes. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University Caption for diagram: This diagram shows an overview of the experiments the scientists conducted. They used a drug prediction algorithm to predict that donepezil had a significant likelihood of inducing torpor-like effects, then tested free and encapsulated versions of the drug. The encapsulated drug caused three major torpor indicators with lower toxicity than the free drug. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University Caption for listing image: Tadpoles from the Xenopus laevis species of frogs are good models for human neurology, because they are easy to grow in large numbers and changes in their behavior are easy to see and record. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University