July 21, 2025
Do These Two Cancer Drugs Have What It Takes to Beat Alzheimer’s?
A new study finds FDA approved drugs that reverse the gene expression signatures associated with Alzheimer’s.
By Levi Gadye

Scientists at UC San Francisco and Gladstone Institutes have identified cancer drugs that promise to reverse the changes that occur in the brain during Alzheimer’s, potentially slowing or even reversing its symptoms.

The study first analyzed how Alzheimer’s disease altered gene expression, the activity of genes in a cell, in single cells in the human brain. Then, researchers looked for existing drugs that were already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and cause the opposite changes to gene expression.

They were looking specifically for drugs that would reverse the gene expression changes in neurons and in other types of brain cells called glia, all of which are damaged or altered in Alzheimer’s disease. Next, the researchers analyzed millions of electronic medical records to show that patients who took some of these drugs as part of their treatment for other conditions were less likely to get Alzheimer’s disease.

When they tested a combination of the two top drugs — both of which are cancer medications — in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s, it reduced brain degeneration in the mice, and even restored their ability to remember.

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