Many diseases can emerge as we age, with metabolic disorders such as diabetes, and neurodegenerative conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, representing two reasonably common age-related illnesses. Many age-related diseases share common underlying mechanisms, including inflammation, a build-up of reactive oxygen molecules that can damage cellular components, and insulin insensitivity. Treatments that can target these mechanisms could have transformational effects on age-related diseases. Read More
Prof. Christian Bréchot and colleagues at The Healthy Aging Company have developed a drug candidate: ALF5755, the pharmacological name of a protein called Hepatocarcinoma-Intestine-Pancreas that has shown exciting evidence of effectiveness on the cognitive disorders which occur during Alzheimer’s disease and the peripheral nerve damage that occurs in diabetes, which is called diabetic neuropathy.
Maintaining health into old age is a key priority, but time is not kind. For instance, in many people, tissues can become less sensitive to insulin, the hormone which controls blood glucose levels. This can lead to diabetes, and serious complications such as diabetic neuropathy, which involves painful lesions. Insulin insensitivity, inflammation and oxidative stress are also involved in neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease.
There are currently no effective treatments for either diabetic neuropathy or Alzheimer’s disease. However, Prof. Christian Bréchot and colleagues have accumulated significant pre-clinical data for ALF5755 in both conditions. The protein can directly inactivate reactive oxygen molecules that cause cellular damage. It acts as a tissue repair molecule, driving tissue regeneration and it also has significant anti-inflammatory effects and can reduce insulin insensitivity.
At present, no treatments exist that can slow or prevent diabetic neuropathy. However, ALF5755 has shown exciting pre-clinical effectiveness in addressing mechanisms underlying diabetic neuropathy. For instance, in a type 2 diabetes rat model in which diabetic neuropathy arises with age, ALF5755 treatment enhanced nerve sensitivity and muscle function.
The ALF5755 protein has also shown significant potential in pre-clinical Alzheimer’s disease models. Alzheimer’s involves inflammation and oxidative stress, providing an opportunity for ALF5755 to help. The researchers used an Alzheimer’s model in which mice demonstrate characteristic protein plaques, along with memory and learning defects.
They used genetic techniques to overexpress the ALF5755 protein in the mice, and successfully demonstrated that it could reverse learning and memory defects over 6 months, and increase levels of anti-oxidant enzymes in the brain.
So far, phase 1 and 2 studies in healthy men and acute liver disease patients who received ALF5755 showed no adverse effects, suggesting this drug is safe. Finding new treatments that can help people to increase their health span and live happy lives into old age would be transformative. Therapies such as ALF5755 look to be a step in the right direction.
