A new drug that acts on both main points of accumulation of Tau proteins, a key factor in neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease, has been developed by an international team of researchers.

The research was published in the Alzheimer’s Association’s journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia.

The drug, a peptide inhibitor called RI-AG03, was effective, in both laboratory and fruit fly studies, at preventing the accumulation of Tau proteins in both of their main areas of accumulation.

The study’s lead author, University of Southampton researcher Antonis Aggidis, notes that “current aggregation inhibitors have had many side effects because they can interfere with the functions of many other proteins. RI-AG03 is specifically designed against the Tau protein and this means it is less likely to interact undesirably with other proteins.”

Dr. Aggidis developed the drug using computational biology at Lancaster University, where he was previously a postdoctoral researcher.

The research was funded by the Alzheimer’s Association and Richard Oakley, deputy director of Research and Innovation, points out that “this research takes promising steps towards a new, one-of-a-kind therapy that targets Tau, a damaging protein in the brains of people living with Alzheimer’s disease, preventing it from accumulating. This drug has the potential to be more targeted than others currently being studied and will hopefully have fewer toxic side effects.” However, he clarifies that “the study is at an early stage, so we don’t yet know if it will work or if it will be safe for humans, but it’s an exciting development and we look forward to seeing where it leads.”

Researchers from Southampton, Lancaster and Nottingham Trent universities, the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Sciences and the US UT Southwestern Medical Center now plan to test the drug in rodents before moving on to clinical trials.