Study finds glaucoma drugs may help fight dementia

Animal studies have shown the potential of a drug commonly used to treat glaucoma, a chronic eye disease, to fight dementia.

Researchers at the UK Dementia Research Institute at the University of Cambridge in the UK focused on a class of drugs known as carbonic anhydrase inhibitors, of which the glaucoma drug methazolamide is part. They found that it could prevent the buildup of the protein tau, which is associated with various forms of dementia, in the brain.

Using genetically modified zebrafish that could mimic so-called tauopathies, the team screened more than 1,400 clinically approved drug compounds. Tauopathies are neurodegenerative diseases characterized by the accumulation of tau protein “aggregates” within nerve cells in the brain.

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Researchers have found that these drugs can help eliminate tau buildup and reduce signs of disease in zebrafish. Tau accumulation was also eliminated in mice with the human-causing mutation P301S, which can lead to Alzheimer’s disease, Pick’s disease and progressive supranuclear palsy, they noted in a paper published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology. To understand incurable conditions, the team modeled tauopathy in zebrafish and screened 1,437 drug compounds.

In genetically engineered mice, treatment with methazolamide helped them perform better on memory tasks and also led to improved cognitive performance compared to untreated mice. Analysis of the mice’s brains showed that they actually had fewer tau aggregates and therefore less brain cell shrinkage compared to untreated mice.

“Metazolamide promises to be a much-needed drug that will help prevent the buildup of dangerous tau proteins in the brain. Although we have only studied it in zebrafish and mice, so it is still early days, we at least know the safety profile of this drug in patients,” said Professor Rubinstein, from the UK Dementia Research Institute at the University of Cambridge.