Lithium could someday help treat Alzheimer's disease, Harvard Medical School researchers say
Researchers at Harvard Medical School in Boston say that, based on a study in mice, lithium could someday help treat Alzheimer's disease.
The research team found that lithium naturally appears in the human brain and it has a protective effect, shielding the brain from memory-robbing harm. The researchers found the loss of lithium in the brain could be the first signs of Alzheimer's in a patient.
About 7 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease.
The Harvard team found that lab mice saw improvement in memory when their lithium levels were restored after being withheld.
According to the researchers, that suggests that, one day, lithium could be used to treat Alzheimer's in humans. It's already used to treat people with bipolar disorder.
"I think these new findings suggest a new potential mechanism for Alzheimer's disease and it raises hope for a therapeutical approach that could potentially be benign and rather in expensive," said Dr. Bruce Yankner, a professor of genetics and neurology at Harvard Medical School.
Only mice have seen the lithium trials so far. It's unclear if adding lithium to a human patient would have the same effect.
"We need to see what happens in a human. So I do not recommend that people go out and take lithium based on this," said Yankner. "Our hope is that it will enter into early clinical trials in the not too distant future."