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Is It Time to Repurpose Calcineurin Inhibitors for the Treatment of Cognitive Impairment and Dementia?

Overview
Publisher Sage Publications
Specialties Geriatrics
Neurology
Date 2023 Sep 4
PMID 37661889
Authors
Affiliations
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Abstract

Numerous preclinical and human tissue studies implicate the protein phosphatase calcineurin (CN) as a pathophysiologic mechanism in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative conditions. Using public electronic records of tens of thousands of individuals across the United States, Silva et al. (2023) show that use of the FDA-approved CN inhibitor, tacrolimus (for purposes of immunosuppression) is also associated with reduced prevalence of dementia-related symptoms. Notably, the study controls for age, sex, and race as well as multiple risk factors for AD. The results suggest that tacrolimus, and possibly other immunosuppressants could be repurposed for the treatment of AD-related dementia.

Citing Articles

Sub-Immunosuppressive Tacrolimus Ameliorates Amyloid-Beta and Tau Pathology in 3xTg-AD Mice.

Silva J, Tumurbaatar B, Guptarak J, Zhang W, Fracassi A, Taglialatela G Int J Mol Sci. 2025; 26(5).

PMID: 40076425 PMC: 11898583. DOI: 10.3390/ijms26051797.


Calcineurin inhibition may prevent Alzheimer disease in people with Down syndrome.

Dohl J, Treadwell Z, Norris C, Head E Alzheimers Dement. 2025; 21(3):e70034.

PMID: 40042516 PMC: 11881635. DOI: 10.1002/alz.70034.

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