The next Alzheimer’s treatment could come from an unexpected place. In new research released this week, scientists have found evidence in mice that xenon gas might be able to help treat the neurodegenerative condition.
Scientists at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Washington University led the research, published Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine. In mice with Alzheimer’s-like disease, xenon gas was shown to reduce inflammation and the shrinking of the brain. The researchers are now embarking on early human trials to further test out the therapy’s potential.
Xenon gas is already used in medicine as an anesthetic and medical imaging agent. Research has also suggested that xenon could help protect the brain, and some studies have experimented with using it as a treatment for depression and other brain-related disorders (sadly, the depression research has been a mixed bag so far). Because xenon can readily pass through the blood-brain barrier—a shield that keeps the brain safe from infections but which also blocks most drugs from reaching it—scientists were curious about whether xenon could also protect the brains of people of Alzheimer’s.
The researchers tested inhaled xenon on two types of mice designed to develop the brain destruction seen in Alzheimer’s. In these mice, the gas appeared to activate a protective response from the brain’s unique immune cells, called microglia, and this activation in turn helped their brain fend off the damaging changes associated with Alzheimer’s. The mice experienced reduced levels of brain inflammation and atrophy, for instance. The researchers also noticed promising signs of reduced amyloid plaque, one of the biomarkers strongly linked to the development of Alzheimer’s.
“It is a very novel discovery showing that simply inhaling an inert gas can have such a profound neuroprotective effect,” said senior researcher Oleg Butovsky, a neurologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, in a statement from Mass General Brigham. “One of the main limitations in the field of Alzheimer’s disease research and treatment is that it is extremely difficult to design medications that can pass the blood-brain barrier—but xenon gas does.”
While these findings are only based on mice, they’re compelling enough for the researchers to take things a step further. The team is set to launch a Phase I trial in the next few months that will test the safety and immune effects of xenon gas on healthy human subjects. Looking ahead, this discovery could pave the way for new possibilities in harnessing xenon’s potential for brain healing.
“If the clinical trial goes well, the opportunities for the use of xenon gas are great,” said co-author Howard Weiner, co-director of Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Women’s and lead researcher of the new trial, in a statement. “It could open the door to new treatments for helping patients with neurologic diseases.”
Though there have been some important advances in treating Alzheimer’s over the years, the best medications today still only provide a modest effect in slowing down the disorder’s progression. So new therapies that can attack Alzheimer’s from a different angle would be greatly welcomed. Currently, around 7 million Americans are thought to be living with Alzheimer’s—a number that could nearly double by 2050.
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