Antibiotics Could Be Promising Treatment for Form of Dementia

A study in Human Molecular Genetics determined a class of antibiotics called aminoglycosides could hold promise as a treatment for frontotemporal dementia, reports ScienceDaily . A subgroup of individuals with frontotemporal dementia carry a genetic mutation that prevents brain cells from producing the protein progranulin, whose absence is associated with the disease. The addition of aminoglycoside antibiotics to neuronal cells with this mutation induced generation of the full-length progranulin protein by bypassing the mutation. "By adding a small antibiotic molecule to the cells, they could 'trick' the cellular machinery into making progranulin," said University of Kentucky College of Medicine Professor Matthew Gentry. Two aminoglycoside antibiotics in particular — Gentamicin and G418 — effectively corrected the mutation and produced the functional progranulin protein. With Gentamicin or G418 molecules added to the affected cells, the progranulin protein level was recovered up to about 50 percent to 60 percent. "If we can get the right resources and physician to work with, we could potentially repurpose this drug," said Haining Zhu with the UK's Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry.