Identified the first drug to prevent the disease:

Around one million people in our country suffers Alzheimer, a neurodegenerative disease that affects 10% of the population over 65 years and for which there is no cure. However, the development of this disease could be prevented, and not only with the adoption of healthy living habits – in fact, the causes for which the disease originate remain unknown –. It could be enough with the administration of a simple drug. Or so it shows, at least, a study led by researchers from the University of Cambridge (UK) and published in the journal "Science advances".

The new research shows how a drug, called "Bexarotene" and already marketed for the treatment of cancer, is able to prevent the onset of Alzheimer's disease by stopping the first step of the cascade of reactions that cause the death of the Brain cells both in laboratory models and in studies carried out with nematodes – a type of worms.
As Michele Vendruscolo, director of the study, explains, "The organism has a variety of natural defenses to protect against the neurodegeneration. But as we age, these defenses deteriorate progressively and can be overcome. So, and understanding how these natural defenses work, we might be able to help them by using drugs that act in a similar way."

Amyloid beta in the human brain

The beta-amyloid protein performs numerous basic functions in the organism. The problem is that when they acquire an erroneous structure, these proteins adhere to each other forming amyloid beta fibers. A process called ' primary nucleation ' that continues with the binding of these fibers to form beta-amyloid oligomers – which in turn will form the beta-amyloid plaques –, in itself highly toxic to neurons and, according to many studies, Responsible for the death of brain cells that trigger Alzheimer's disease.
Therefore, in recent decades numerous studies have been developed to find a drug capable of destroying these oligomers. However, the results have been completely unsuccessful.

As Michele Vendruscolo points out, "if we want to block the aggregation of proteins we need to know exactly what's going on and when it's happening. And in this sense, we have developed a test that analyzes the process not just as a whole. It also allows us to know what happens at every stage of the process. And if we are able to stop the aggregation before it starts, then there will be no proliferation."