HIV Drug Could Treat Alzheimer's, Age-Associated Disorders

An HIV drug significantly reduces age-related inflammation and other signs of aging in mice, according to a new study published in the journal Nature . As age-related inflammation is an important component of age-associated disorders, the findings offer hope for treating diseases such as Alzheimer's, reports ScienceDaily . Generic HIV drug lamivudine acts by halting retrotransposon activity in old cells. In the study, researchers showed that an important class of retrotransposons, called L1, escaped from cellular control and began to replicate in both senescent human cells and old mice. Retrotransposon replication is detected by an antiviral immune response, called the interferon response, and ultimately triggers inflammation in neighboring cells, the researchers found. They thought HIV drugs may keep the viral-like L1 retrotransposon from replicating and thereby prevent the inflammatory immune response. They found that treating 26-month-old mice, roughly equivalent to 75-year-old humans, with lamivudine for as little as two weeks reduced evidence of both the interferon response and inflammation. "This holds promise for treating age-associated disorders including Alzheimer's," said John Sedivy, professor of medical science and biology at Brown University. "And not just Alzheimer's but many other diseases: Type 2 diabetes, Parkinson's, macular degeneration, arthritis, all of these different things."