Alzheimer’s Disease and Insulin Resistance Link Found at ISU

Achieving a breakthrough feat, a pharmaceutical company, Eli Lilly has claimed the development of a “game changer” drug capable of effectively halting the rate of brain decline in patients suffering from Alzheimer’s by about a third.

Auriel Willette, a research scientist university, said that insulin resistance is common in people who are obese, pre-diabetic or have type 2 diabetes. “Even people with mild or moderate insulin resistance who don’t have type 2 diabetes might have an increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease because they’re showing numerous same sorts of brain and memory relationships”.

“In relation to how insulin might give us that extra jolt of energy to be able to figure something out or to remember something or to make a new memory – things along those lines – we really don’t understand much of how that works at all”.

The scans detected if people with higher levels of insulin resistance used less blood sugar in areas of the brain most susceptible to Alzheimer’s.

There is a strong association between insulin resistance and decline of memory function and this increases the risk for Alzheimer’s disease, says a new study. In brains of Alzheimer’s patients, blood sugar use tends to be lower in areas that generate memories, especially regarding times, dates, names and facts.

If that’s true, Gandy added, “then efforts at sensitizing the brain to insulin, using drugs such as pioglitazone [Actos, a diabetes drug], would make sense and might well lead to slowing of degeneration”.

In the latest study, data were gathered from the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer’s Prevention study, which included participants who at high risk for Alzheimer’s based on parental history.

In light of these findings, it is hoped that finding the means to tackle insulin resistance could also lead to the decrease of developing Alzheimer’s disease. All patients underwent PET brain scans and were tested for insulin resistance. They were also tested for memory function loss and insulin resistance.

Understanding the progression of cognitive decline will take additional research. These studies already suggest scientists are closing in on the right target for Alzheimer’s drugs.

Dr. Sam Gandy, director of the Center for Cognitive Health at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, said it appears there may be a difference “between the dementia related to full-blown diabetes, which seems to be primarily dementia caused by hardening of the arteries in the brain, and the mental impact of insulin resistance, which some investigators believe is associated with Alzheimer’s”.

Many people, scientist, elderly, and both, are hopeful that future drugs will improve upon Solanezumab’s already impressive ability to combat the effects of Alzheimer’s.