2023 Zenith Fellows Award Program (ZEN)
5HT2c treatment of psychological symptoms of dementia
Can an antidepressant be used for treating Alzheimer’s?
David Morgan, Ph.D.
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI - United States
Background
For the individual, the clinical symptoms of Alzheimer’s and other dementia may be associated with behavioral changes such as depression, anxiety, and sleep difficulties. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are a class of drugs widely used to treat these same symptoms in psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia. In initial studies, SSRIs have been shown to reduce the levels of beta amyloid plaques and tau tangles, two of the hallmark brain changes in Alzheimer’s. However, whether this class of drug could be used to treat the behavioral changes seen in Alzheimer’s is unknown. Dr. David Morgan and colleagues propose a study to examine whether treatment with a specific SSRI called “BMB” that targets 5HT2c (a receptor on the surface of cells that binds serotonin) could be an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s.
Research Plan
Dr. Morgan and the research team will conduct a series of experiments to determine whether BMB could be an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s. First, the researchers will determine the safe and optimal dose of the drug cognitively unimpaired animals. Next, they will treat genetically engineered Alzheimer’s-like mice with BMB and examine whether there are any behavioral changes compared to untreated mice. They will do this using Alzheimer’s-like mice that accumulate either beta amyloid plaques or tau tangles to study the association between behavioral changes and the hallmark brain changes in Alzheimer’s following BMB treatment.
Impact
If successful, this study could shed new light on the underlying mechanisms leading to behavioral changes in Alzheimer’s. These results could lead to future studies in humans to determine if BMB may serve as a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s.