This Anesthesia Gas May Be the Next Big Deal for Alzheimer’s

The next Alzheimer’s treatment may come from an unexpected place. In a new study released this week, scientists have found evidence in mice that xenon gas can help treat neurodegenerative diseases.

Scientists at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Washington University led the study, printed Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine. In mice with Alzheimer’s disease, xenon gas was shown to reduce inflammation and shrink the brain. The researchers are now starting early human trials to test the drug’s potential.

Xenon gas is already used in medicine as an anesthetic and for medical imaging. Studies have also shown that xenon can help to protect the brainand other studies have tried to use it as a treatment for depression and other neurological disorders (sadly, depression research has been mixing bag for now). Because xenon can cross the blood-brain barrier—the shield that protects the brain from disease and blocks many drugs from reaching it—scientists were interested in whether xenon could also protect the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease.

The researchers tested xenon exposure on two types of mice designed to reverse the brain damage seen in Alzheimer’s. In these mice, the air seemed to trigger a defense mechanism from special immune cells in the brain, called microglia, and this activation helped their brains to stop the destructive changes associated with Alzheimer’s. The mice experienced reduced brain swelling and atrophy, for example. The researchers also saw promising signs of a decrease in amyloid plaques, one of the most closely linked to the development of Alzheimer’s.

“It’s a new hypothesis that shows that just inhaling oxygen can have a significant neuroprotective effect,” said lead researcher Oleg Butovsky, a neurologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, in words from Mass. General Brigham. “One of the biggest obstacles to research and treatment for Alzheimer’s disease is that it is very difficult to develop drugs that can cross the brain barrier—but xenon gas does.”

Although the findings are limited to mice, they are forcing researchers to move forward. The group is expected to establish a Phase I tests in the next few months that will test the safety and immune effects of xenon gas on healthy human subjects. Looking to the future, these findings may open up new ways to use xenon’s potential in brain healing.

“If clinical trials are successful, the opportunity to use xenon gas is great,” said co-author Howard Weiner, director of the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Women’s and principal investigator of the new trial, a statement. “It could open up new ways to treat patients with neurologic diseases.”

Although there have been important advances in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease over the years, the best drugs available today only help to slow the progression of the disease. Therefore, new treatments that can treat Alzheimer’s disease in different ways would be very welcome. Currently, about 7 million Americans are I thought have Alzheimer’s – a number that could double by 2050.