A drug for spinal injury just repaired Alzheimer's DNA damage

A drug called KCL-286 repaired DNA breaks and reduced inflammation in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease, neuroscientists at King's College London reported in a newly published paper. The molecule targets damage that appears in the earliest stages of the disease, before the toxic protein clumps most treatments chase. It was originally developed for spinal cord injury, then studied in neuropathic pain, and has already passed Phase 1 human safety trials. That head start could cut years off the usual drug timeline. "DNA double-strand breaks are like a rope snapping completely in two, rather than just fraying at the edges," explained Jonathan Corcoran, Professor of Neuroscience at King's College London. The drug works through the retinoic acid pathway, the same chemistry the body uses to process vitamin A. Natasha Hill, a first author, said an effective treatment needs to tackle multiple aspects of the disease at once. This one, built for something else entirely, turned out to.