Scientists have discovered that the pain reliever mefenamic acid – usually given to help with period pain – has a notable side effect: it also reverses the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease in mice.

How does it do this?

Well we have linked Alzheimer's to inflammation in the brain. Period pain is mostly inflammation. We think Alzheimer's comes from an immune response from Bactria crossing the blood brain barrier but that post is for another day. This treats the symptoms not the underlying cause.

The mice started to gain back memories and were able to remember stuff better after being treated with this. Sadly medicine for mice doesn't always work on humans more testing will need to be done.

"Mefenamic acid is the first drug to be discovered that targets a key inflammatory pathway called the NLRP3 inflammasome, which scientists think contributes to brain cell damage, among other health problems.

Many studies make use of lab mice to test drugs before human trials can get started, but it's never a sure bet that researchers will be able to reproduce the same results from animal trials in testing with human beings."- a writer for Science alert

We use them in testing because they are genetically very similar to us. They are 97.5% similar and commonly found and easily bred, so they make a good choice

When can we start testing and using it?

Well it is already approved for use in humans as it is a period pain reliever. This means tests can begin almost immediately (and by the time you are reading this probably have been). One of the hardest parts of creating new drugs is getting approval to test them in humans, but the hard part has already been done for us.

#MINNOWSUNITE
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