An exciting new development in the fight to treat dementia. It's been discovered that drugs designed to treat type two diabetes can protect the brains of mice from the effects of Alzheimer's disease.

This could transform treatment for those with Alzheimer's in the very near future, as the drugs in question, lixisenatide and liraglutide, have already been licensed for use on humans and are readily available.

The concept of using drugs designed to treat one condition in the treatment of other conditions is called drug repurposing. According to the society's Head of Research, James Pickett:-

"Current treatments for Alzheimer's only help with the symptoms for a short while and do not stop the disease from progressing. We believe that the concept of drug repurposing, where drugs already licensed for one condition may be beneficial for dementia, has enormous potential and could deliver new treatments faster and cheaper than producing a new drug from scratch. By speeding up the research process we hope to deliver a new dementia treatment within five to 10 years". 

http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/news_article.php?newsID=2227