WIKIMEDIA, NEPHRONResearchers from multiple independent scientific teams have been unable to replicate findings on the effects of a cancer drug that has been touted as a promising treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. Scientists led by Gary Landreth from Case Western Reserve University published a paper in Science in February 2012 that claimed that the chemotherapeutic agent bexarotene, also known as Targretin, could reduce amyloid beta plaques by half within 3 days. But when four independent teams tried to replicate the work, they saw no effect of bexarotene on amyloid beta plaques in mice, according to technical comments published today (May 23) in Science.
“We were surprised and excited, even stunned, when we first saw these results presented at a small conference,” Sangram Sisodia of the University of Chicago, who published one of the replication attempts, said in a statement. “The mechanism of action made some sense, but the assertion that they could reduce the areas of plaque by 50 percent within three days, and by 75 percent in two weeks, seemed too good to be true.”
The new studies did replicate some findings from the paper. Sisodia’s team found that bexarotene lowered levels of soluble amyloid beta in one mouse model that they tested, while a group at the University of Pittsburgh also saw reduced amyloid beta in brain fluid in mice. The Pittsburgh group also found that ...
