This anesthetic gas could be the next big treatment for Alzheimer’s disease

The next treatment for Alzheimer’s disease could come from an unexpected place. In new research published this week, scientists found in mice that xenon gas could help treat neurodegenerative disease.

Scientists from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the University of Washington led the research, published Wednesday in Scientific translational medicine. In mice with Alzheimer’s disease, xenon gas was shown to reduce inflammation and brain shrinkage. Researchers are now embarking on the first human trials to further test the therapy’s potential.

Xenon gas is already used in medicine as an anesthetic agent and for medical imaging. Research has also suggested that xenon may help protect the brain, and some studies have experimented with its use as a treatment for depression and other brain-related disorders (unfortunately, research on depression has been mixed so far ). Because xenon can easily cross the blood-brain barrier – a shield that protects the brain from infection but also prevents most drugs from reaching it – scientists were curious if xenon could also protect people’s brains. suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

The researchers tested inhaled xenon on two types of mice engineered to develop the brain destruction seen in Alzheimer’s disease. In these mice, the gas appeared to activate a protective response in the brain’s unique immune cells, called microglia, and this activation in turn helped their brains fend off the damaging changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease. For example, the mice showed reduced levels of inflammation and brain atrophy. The researchers also noticed promising signs of reduction in amyloid plaque, one of the biomarkers strongly linked to the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

“This is a very novel finding that shows that simply inhaling an inert gas can have such a profound neuroprotective effect,” lead researcher Oleg Butovsky, a neurologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, said in a statement from Mass General Brigham. “One of the major limitations in Alzheimer’s research and treatment is that it is extremely difficult to design drugs that can cross the blood-brain barrier, but xenon gas does.”

Although these results are based only on mice, they are convincing enough for researchers to go further. The team is expected to launch a phase I trial in the coming months that will test the safety and immune effects of xenon gas in healthy human subjects. In the future, this discovery could open the door to new possibilities in harnessing the potential of xenon for brain healing.

“If the clinical trial goes well, the opportunities for using xenon gas are great,” said co-author Howard Weiner, co-director of the Ann Romney Center for Neurological Diseases at Brigham and Women’s and principal investigator of the new trial. , in a statement. “This could open the door to new treatments to help patients with neurological diseases.”

Although significant progress has been made in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease over the years, today’s best drugs still have only a modest effect in slowing the progression of the disease. New therapies capable of attacking Alzheimer’s disease from a different angle would therefore be welcome. Currently, approximately 7 million Americans are estimated to be living with Alzheimer’s disease, a number that could nearly double by 2050.