ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE

Literature Review Assignment on 'The Diabetes Drug Liraglutide Prevents Degenerative

Processes in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease'

Literature Review Assignment on 'The Diabetes Drug Liraglutide Prevents Degenerative

Processes in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease'

Summary of the study

Alzheimer's disease is related to Type 2 diabetes. When the insulin gets impaired it signals in the form of the brain. This signalling in the brain is assisted through incretin hormone glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). The therapeutics that are available in the market are novel long-lasting GLP-1 analogs. Liraglutide is a major therapeutic in this category. In vitro and in vivo are two of the neuroprotective properties that are commonly found in GLP-1. In the given study, the Alzheimer mouse model is used for considering the effect of peripherally injected liraglutide. The Alzheimer mouse model is given as APPswe/PS1?E9 (APP/PS1). In the acute study that was conducted, the blood- brain barrier was overcome by Liraglutide.

For the purpose of the study, the body weight that was used was 25 nmol/kg for a 7 month old APP/PS1 and wild-type littermate controls. These were used for a daily injection of Liraglutide for a period of 8 weeks. The mice underwent several study experiments. It was found through various experiments that liraglutide was able to prevent memory impairments. For instance, the APP/PS1 mice did well in the water maze tasks and object recognition. In addition, the deterioration of synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus and synapse loss which are usually observed in this model, it was found that liraglutide prevented them too.

The model studied the ß-amyloid plaque count in the cortex, soluble amyloid Oligomers and the number of dense-core plaque. It was found that ß-amyloid plaque was reduced to about halved whereas the level of soluble amyloid Oligomers was reduced by one-fourth. However, the number of dense-core plaque also ...