Using a drug approved for Alzheimer’s, US researchers have put tadpoles into a hibernation-like state and may have found a way to help patients survive serious injuries or infections.
The team from the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, Boston, first used AI to identify that the drug donepezil (DNP), which helps with dementia symptoms, also has the potential to induce a state similar to torpor (suspended animation) where physical and mental activity is reduced – for example by lowering body temperature – as a way to conserve energy.
A torpor-like state is useful in a medical setting and is used to reduce injuries and long-term complications by cooling a patient’s body and reducing the amount of energy they expend.
The team gave DNP to tadpoles from the African clawed frog (a popular model for studying development) and saw that the drug successfully induced a torpor-like state.
Donald Ingber, at Wyss, said the drug, “could potentially be used in the future to buy patients critical time to survive devastating injuries and diseases, and it could be easily formulated and produced at scale on a much shorter time scale than a new drug”.