A drug used to treat high blood pressure and enlargement of the prostate may protect the brain from damage caused by post-traumatic stress disorder, Alzheimer’s disease, depression and schizophrenia. Prazosin, also prescribed as an antipsychotic medication, appears to block the increase of steroid hormones known as glucocorticoids, Oregon Health & Science University and Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center researchers have found. Elevated levels of glucocorticoids are associated with atrophy in nerve branches where impulses are transmitted, and even nerve cell death, in the hippocampus.
The hippocampus is the elongated ridge located in the cerebral cortex of the brain where emotions and memory are processed.
“It’s known, from human studies, that corticosteroids are not good for you cognitively,” said study co-author S. Paul Berger, M.D., assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience, OHSU School of Medicine and the PVAMC. “We think prazosin protects the brain from being damaged by excessive levels of corticosteroid stress hormones.”
The study, titled “Prazosin attenuates dexamethasone-induced HSP70 expression in the cortex,” was presented during a poster session at Neuroscience 2007, the annual Society for Neuroscience conference in San Diego.
Release date: November 6, 2007
Source: Oregon Health & Science University
Filed Under: Drug Discovery
