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Bumetanide, a drug already approved to treat swelling associated with conditions such as heart failure, improved performance on cognitive tests and reduced the buildup of amyloid plaques in mice with an Alzheimer’s-like condition, researchers report. Furthermore, in cultured human neurons derived from stem cells, bumetanide reversed gene expression changes associated with Alzheimer’s, and the electronic health records of millions of patients point to a link between the drug and reduced odds of being diagnosed with the disease.
On the basis of these results, published this week (October 10) in Nature Aging, Gladstone Institutes neurobiologist and study coauthor Yadong Huang tells STAT that he and his team are now pursuing a clinical trial to test the drug in human patients with at least one copy of the APOE4 variant, a well-known risk factor for the disease.
Bumetanide blocks ion channels in the cell membrane, thereby altering salt ...
