how do Alzheimer’s and dementia drugs help? What do they do in a patient’s “head”?
In: Biology
Brain needs chemicals to work properly. You may have heard of some like dopamine or serotonin. Treatment is based around making sure we have the right levels of these chemicals, either by adding more or blocking excess chemicals. Some treatments work by mimicking them Incase the chemicals our brain produces don’t work normally.
Neurotransmitters are released from neurons to stimulate the next neuron. Afterwards the neurotransmitter is broken down by an enzyme. In Alzheimer’s they have limited function of neurons and not enough of the neurotransmitter to trigger the next. The drugs inhibit the enzyme that breaks down that neurotransmitter, this allows a concentration of the neurotransmitter to help the neurons “fire” thus stimulating better function.
It’s debatable if they really do work. I recall that it’s either hit or miss : SOme people see clear improvement of the symptoms (but the progression is still the same) and some absolutely no effect at all.
The drugs for treating alzheimer’s symptoms are increasing acetylcholin, which is a neurotransmitter, a molecule that allows communication between neurons, it was shown that it was kind of lacking in Alzheimer’s disease patient and depending on the brain area, acetylcholine is involved in memory and attention.
So increasing acetylcholine could help potentially.
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