HOUSTON: An experimental drug that mimics the hunger hormone may offer protection against Alzheimer’s disease, an animal study shows.
In the study, researchers found that the drug, which is a ghrelin antagonist, reduced memory loss in mice engineered to have an Alzheimer’s-like disease. Ghrelin is the body’s hormonal response to hunger, and this drug magnifies its effect.
Previously, the team had found that the drug protected the animals against memory loss but this new study expands upon that research by including a possible risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease, the high-glycemic diet.