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Androgen therapy may slow progress of Alzheimer's disease
December 20, 2006Experiments on mouse models of Alzheimer's disease (AD) suggest that treatment with male sex hormones might slow its progression. The findings, published in the December 20 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, provide new insight into the relationship between testosterone loss and AD, which affects 4.5 million Americans.
Senior author Christian Pike, PhD, of the University of Southern California (USC), with colleagues at USC and the University of California, Irvine, sought to better understand the role hormones play in aging and disease. Recent studies had already established a link between testosterone loss in men and AD due to natural aging.
The research team established a correlation between low testosterone and elevated beta-amyloid (Aâ), a protein that accumulates abnormally in AD patients. This finding, they say, suggests that testosterone depletion in aging men may be a risk factor for AD by promoting accumulation of Aâ in the brain. Testosterone, the primary male sex hormone, is one in a group of related steroid hormones referred to as androgens. Recent studies suggest that androgens may lower Aâ levels.
"This study raises the possibility that androgen replacement therapy might lower the risk for Alzheimer's, but this is far from proven," says Sam Gandy, MD, PhD, chair of the Alzheimer's Association's Medical and Scientific Advisory Council and director of the Farber Institute for Neurosciences at Thomas Jefferson University. "Because testosterone is rapidly converted to estrogen after entry into neurons, the new data are logical, and they dovetail well with historical data."
Using a mouse model of AD, in which three genes had been altered, researchers evaluated how experimental manipulation of sex hormones affected the progress of the disease. Researchers removed the testes of young adult male mice and over several months, treated some with a testosterone hormone and others with a placebo.
After the treatment period, memory-related behavior and measures of Alzheimer-like pathology were measured in the different groups of mice. The castrated models that received the placebo showed poor working memory and high brain levels of Aâ. However, both Aâ accumulation and cognitive decline were prevented in mice treated with the hormone therapy.
"Although the results of the study predict that androgen therapy has the potential to reduce the risk of AD in at least some men," Pike said, "clinical studies will be required to determine when and how to use androgen therapy."
Society for Neuroscience
"This study raises the possibility that androgen replacement therapy might lower the risk for Alzheimer's, but this is far from proven," says Sam Gandy, MD, PhD, chair of the Alzheimer's Association's Medical and Scientific Advisory Council and director of the Farber Institute for Neurosciences at Thomas Jefferson University. "Because testosterone is rapidly converted to estrogen after entry into neurons, the new data are logical, and they dovetail well with historical data."
Using a mouse model of AD, in which three genes had been altered, researchers evaluated how experimental manipulation of sex hormones affected the progress of the disease. Researchers removed the testes of young adult male mice and over several months, treated some with a testosterone hormone and others with a placebo.
After the treatment period, memory-related behavior and measures of Alzheimer-like pathology were measured in the different groups of mice. The castrated models that received the placebo showed poor working memory and high brain levels of Aâ. However, both Aâ accumulation and cognitive decline were prevented in mice treated with the hormone therapy.
"Although the results of the study predict that androgen therapy has the potential to reduce the risk of AD in at least some men," Pike said, "clinical studies will be required to determine when and how to use androgen therapy."
Society for Neuroscience
Testosterone Current Events and Testosterone News RSSHeart and bone damage from low vitamin D tied to declines in sex hormones
Researchers at Johns Hopkins are reporting what is believed to be the first conclusive evidence in men that the long-term ill effects of vitamin D deficiency are amplified by lower levels of the key sex hormone estrogen, but not testosterone.
Pilot study relates phthalate exposure to less-masculine play by boys
A study of 145 preschool children reports, for the first time, that when the concentrations of two common phthalates in mothers' prenatal urine are elevated their sons are less likely to play with male-typical toys and games, such as trucks and play fighting.
Hormone that affects finger length key to social behavior
The hormones, called androgens, are important in the development of masculine characteristics such as aggression and strength.
Postmenopausal women with higher testosterone levels
Postmenopausal women who have higher testosterone levels may be at greater risk of heart disease, insulin resistance and the metabolic syndrome compared to women with lower testosterone levels.
Fetal study highlights impact of stress on male fertility
Exposure to a combination of excess stress hormones and chemicals while in the womb could affect a man's fertility in later life, a study suggests.
Studies examine how living conditions impact reproductive health
When costs outweigh benefits, successful pregnancies are less likely to occur. Life is all about tradeoffs and recently published research by Virginia J. Vitzthum, a senior scientist at Indiana University's Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, and professor in the IU College of Arts and Sciences' Department of Anthropology, has shown that during periods of intense labor and low food intake, rates of early pregnancy loss can more than double.
BUSM researchers propose a relationship between androgen deficiency and cardiovascular disease
Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) in collaboration with researchers from Lahey Clinic Northshore, Peabody, Mass., believe that androgen deficiency might be the underlying cause for a variety of common clinical conditions, including diabetes, erectile dysfunction, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease (CVD).
Prostate cancer patients on hormone therapy at increased risk for various heart diseases
New research has found that hormone therapy used to treat men with advanced prostate cancer is associated with an increased chance of developing various heart problems. Some choices of therapy appear, however, to be less risky than others.
Obesity increases risk of prostate cancer recurrence for both blacks and whites
A new look at a large database of prostate cancer patients shows that obesity plays no favorites when it comes to increasing the risk of recurrence after surgery: Being way overweight is equally bad for blacks and whites, say researchers at Duke University Medical Center.
Life and death in the living brain
Like clockwork, brain regions in many songbird species expand and shrink seasonally in response to hormones. Now, for the first time, University of Washington neurobiologists have interrupted this natural "annual remodeling" of the brain and have shown that there is a direct link between the death of old neurons and their replacement by newly born ones in a living vertebrate.
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