Milwaukee-area researchers have developed a compound which could lead to new treatments for memory loss in women.
Karyn Frick of UW-Milwaukee, Daniel Sem of Concordia University Wisconsin and William Donaldson of Marquette University created an altered estrogen molecule, which improved memory in test animals with post-menopausal dementia.
“There are multiple forms of estrogen in hormone replacement,” said Frick, a UWM professor of psychology. “Some are beneficial for brain health and some aren’t. Our molecule is a smaller version of the most potent form of estrogen, called estradiol, which is particularly diminished in menopause.”
The three researchers have formed a startup company called Estrigenix Therapeutics, to develop hormone drugs related to estrogen. It’s one of 13 UW-Milwaukee faculty startups.
Women are three times more likely to experience memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease as they age, according to a release from UW-Milwaukee. That’s related to the drop in estrogen that comes during menopause.
Current treatment methods like estrogen replacement can lead to side effects like breast cancer and higher risk of heart disease, according to a fact sheet from Mayo Clinic. The newly created estrogen molecule minimizes these risks, according to the release.
That’s because the molecule interacts with the body in a unique way. Estrogens work by binding to receptor proteins, like two puzzle pieces fitting together.
The most common of these receptors are called alpha and beta. Most of the negative side effects that come with hormone replacement therapy happen when estrogen attaches to the alpha receptor, the release shows. The new molecule only binds to the beta receptor.
The results of this research were published this summer in the Journal of Medical Chemistry.
Funding originally came from the National Institutes of Health, and the group’s NIH grant has been renewed for three more years. Concordia’s Sem says it will take another $2 million to bring the estrogen compound to the clinical trial stage.
