Scientists: century-old drug might cure Parkinson’s,

A study with mice sug­gests a century-old drug, meth­yl­ene blue, could slow or even cure Alz­heim­er’s and Park­in­son’s dis­ease in small doses, re­search­ers say.

“To find that such a com­mon and in­ex­pen­sive drug can be used to in­crease and pro­long the qual­ity of life by treat­ing such se­ri­ous dis­eases is truly ex­cit­ing,” said Bruce Ames, a co-author of the study at Chil­dren’s Hos­pi­tal & Re­search Cen­ter Oak­land, in Cal­i­for­nia.

In very low con­centra­t­ion­s—the equiv­a­lent of a few rain­drops in four Olym­pic-sized swim­ming pools—the drug slows cel­lu­lar ag­ing and en­hances the func­tion of cel­lu­lar “power plants” called mi­to­chon­dria, the ex­pe­ri­menters said.

Their re­sults ap­peared in the March is­sue of the Fed­er­a­t­ion of Amer­i­can So­ci­eties for Ex­pe­ri­men­tal Bi­ol­o­gy Jour­nal.


Source: http://www.world-science.net/othernews/080818_blue