Alzheimer's drugs offer promise for stroke victims

LONG-TERM effects of head injuries or strokes could be prevented by a new class of Alzheimer's drugs, new research suggests.

The drugs appear to do what no medicine has done before – protect against the continuing damage that often follows serious injury to the brain.

Known as gamma secretase inhibitors, the compounds are designed to prevent the build-up of toxic protein fragments in the brain. Beta amyloid peptide is associated with Alzheimer's disease, but is also present in the brains of people who have died from traumatic brain injuries.

People who suffer brain trauma can also be four times more likely than normal to develop Alzheimer's.

"No-one knows why it occurs, but abnormal amounts of amyloid plaque have been found during an autopsy in about a third of brain injury victims, some of whom were children," said Dr Mark Burns, from Georgetown University Medical Centre in Washington DC, who led the new research.

The study is reported in the journal Nature Medicine.