Rolipram - a potential new treatment for Alzheimer disease

Main Category: Alzheimer's / Dementia
Article Date: 02 Dec 2004 - 10:00 PDT

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'Rolipram - a potential new treatment for Alzheimer disease'

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Alzheimer disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia in the elderly and classic clinical features include memory loss, deterioration in speech, and behavioral disturbances. Doctors increasingly concede that central to the cause of AD is the production and accumulation of beta-amyloid (Ab), which is toxic in the brain. There are only a few clinical therapeutic options for AD patients but in the December 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Ottavio Arancio, Michael Shelanksi, and colleagues from Columbia University, New York, propose a new treatment to counter AD-associated memory loss.

The authors show that brief treatment of a mouse model of AD with a phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitor, rolipram, improves memory in both long-term potential and contextual learning - both measurements of brain function.

Rolipram's protective effect is due to its ability to modify gene expression, making brain synapses more resistant to the insult caused by the accumulation of Ab. The beneficial effect of rolipram treatment was found to extend for at least 2 months after the end of one course of the treatment. The authors also found that the beneficial effects of treatment were not limited to early stages of the disease when behavioral changes were initially noted and were actually greater in older mice, suggesting that this class of drug might not be limited to treatment in the initial phases of disease.

Further studies will determine how long improvements in cognitive function persist after a single course of treatment and whether better or more long-lasting results can be achieved with either continuous treatment or successive courses of treatment. This study suggests that drugs, such as rolipram, the inhibit phosphodiesterase have the potential to prevent the memory loss characteristic of Alzheimer disease.

TITLE: Persistent improvement in synaptic and cognitive functions in an Alzheimer mouse model after rolipram treatment

AUTHOR CONTACT:

Ottavio Arancio or Michael Shelanski
Department of Pathology
Columbia University
New York, New York, USA
Phone: 212-342-5527 or 212-305-3300
Fax: 212-342-5524 or 212-305-5498
E-mail: oa1@columbia.edu or mls7@columbia.edu.

View the PDF of this article at: https://www.the-jci.org/press/22831.pdf

Contact: Brooke Grindlinger
press_releases@the-jci.org
212-342-0497
Journal of Clinical Investigation

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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Visitor Opinions (latest shown first)

ROLIPRAM -- WHAT A CRIME

posted by RON on 29 Dec 2004 at 1:33 am

What a crime it is to our older family members for something like this to be held back for years.

My father is 80 and they may shorten his life by a few years if they give this to him now---as bad as alzhiemers has become

Why can't this country (USA) stay out of space and other countries long enough to have the money for the research they need to expidite the cures for this tragedy
Yes ,help will be needed in 10 years ,,, but it is needed now....

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Alzheimer's / Dementia

What Is Alzheimer's Disease?

Alzheimer's disease is a progressive neurologic disease of the brain leading to the irreversible loss of neurons and the loss of intellectual abilities, including memory and reasoning. Read more...

What is Dementia?

The word dementia comes from the Latin de meaning "apart" and mens from the genitive mentis meaning "mind". Dementia is the progressive deterioration in cognitive function - the ability to process thought (intelligence). Read more...

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