Abstract

Metformin is a common diabetes type 2 medication, which has been shown by previous research to have both good and bad effects when used as a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.This research will try to understand the parts of a brain cell metformin targets to have a beneficial effect which could help design future Alzheimer’s disease treatments for the future. There is currently no treatment for any type of dementia that stops or slows down the progression of disease.To develop effective treatments, understanding exactly which parts of a brain cell to target with drugs is essential.By untangling the “good” and the “bad” effects of metformin, researchers will know which parts of a human brain cell metformin targets to have a beneficial effect.This knowledge could give the dementia research community another part of the brain cell to target with future treatments, which could be used to develop future Alzheimer’s disease drugs that might slow down progression of the disease.These treatments would be more targeted and would avoid the previously described unwanted side effects of metformin treatment.

Aims

This project looks to try and further understand the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ effects of Metformin on Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers hope to find out how Metformin improves Alzheimer’s disease symptoms and also what causes it to increase the unwanted amyloid plaques.

They will use fly models of Alzheimer’s disease to identify any genes that are affected by Metformin treatment which also reduce the toxicity of amyloid protein build ups. They will then try to work out how these genes have this effect.

Finally, they will then look at these genes in human brain cells grown in a dish that are affected by Alzheimer’s disease. This will help the researchers understand metformin’s previously described beneficial effects