The soil of Easter Island could possibly be housing the cure to Alzheimer’s disease. A drug, known as rapamycin, was recently discovered in the ground on the island. The drug has already shown that it can extend the lives of animals and now it is showing promise that it could reverse the effects of Alzheimer’s disease.

Two separate studies were conducted earlier this year and both yielded the same results. The Public Library of Science published a study which shows that mice who were fed a rapamycin-enhanced diet showed much improvement in both cognition and memory. The other study was published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry and had the same results with a different group of Alzheimer’s infected mice.

“Rapamycin treatment lowered levels of amyloid-beta-42, a major toxic species of molecules in Alzheimer’s disease,” said Dr. Veronica Galvan, an author of the Public Library of Science study, in an article posted by www.io9.com.

“The fact that we are seeing identical results in two vastly different mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease provides robust evidence that rapamycin treatment is effective and is acting by changing a basic pathogenic process of Alzheimer’s that is common to both mouse models. This suggests that it may be an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s in humans.”

“Health professionals often divide the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease into ‘cognitive’ and ‘behavioral and psychiatric’ categories,” according to the Alzheimer’s Association’s website (www.alz.org). “Cognitive symptoms affect memory, language, judgment, planning, ability to pay attention and other thought processes. Behavioral and psychiatric symptoms affect the way we feel and act.”

Currently, treatments for Alzheimer’s disease are rather ineffective. There are two types of medications approved by the FDA for the treatment of the cognitive symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. The first type is called cholinesterase, which is used to stop the breaking down of a chemical messenger (acetylcholine) that is important for memory and learning. The second type is called memantine, which is used to regulate a different chemical messenger (glutamate) that is used in memory and learning.

“The studies show that (the most effective treatments on the market) can help delay progression of the disease about six months or so,” Dr. Robert Paul, psychology professor, said. “I wouldn’t say that it has a direct effect on the core pathology of Alzheimer’s disease, such as plaques and tangles because it’s not working on those, it’s working in a different system. It’s kind of like an ancillary approach, these drugs do not target the core pathology of the disease. It helps in kind of a peripheral, ancillary way.”

This is where rapamycin shows its true potential. It could be the first drug that can actually work at directly fighting the true heart of Alzheimer’s disease. Rapamycin is already used for treating organ transplant patients for organ rejection. This means that it is already approved by the FDA and could be prescribed by doctors today for treating Alzheimer’s patients. However, there is still no precise evidence that rapamycin will do the same in humans as it does in mice.