Common anti-seizure drug prevents Alzheimer plaque formation
Mar 2nd 2026
Northwestern researchers show toxic amyloid-beta 42 builds up in synaptic vesicles and report that the FDA-approved anti-seizure drug levetiracetam blocks that production in animal models, human neurons and Down syndrome brain tissue.
- Amyloid-beta 42 accumulates inside neurons' synaptic vesicles before plaques form.
- Levetiracetam binds the synaptic protein SV2A and slows vesicle recycling, keeping APP on the cell surface and diverting it away from pathways that make amyloid-beta 42.
- This drug prevents production of toxic amyloid peptides rather than clearing existing plaques like current antibody treatments.
- Preventive treatment would likely need to start very early, possibly decades before symptoms appear.
- Clinical data analysis found levetiracetam use correlated with a small delay in disease progression.