Dapsone is an anticatalysis for Alzheimer's disease exacerbation

Jong Hoon Lee; Badar Kanwar; Chul Joong Lee; Consolato Sergi; Michael D Coleman

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.104274

Dapsone is an anticatalysis for Alzheimer's disease exacerbation

iScience. 2022 Apr 20;25(5):104274. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104274. eCollection 2022 May 20.

Authors

Jong Hoon Lee¹, Badar Kanwar², Chul Joong Lee³, Consolato Sergi⁴, Michael D Coleman⁵

Affiliations

¹ Science and Research Center, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
² Department of Pulmonary Critical Care Medicine, Hunt Regional Hospital, Greenville, TX, USA.
³ Department of Anesthesiology, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
⁴ Division of Anatomical Pathology, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), University of Ottawa, 401 Smyth Road Ottawa, ON K1H 8L1, Canada.
⁵ College of Health and Life Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK.

Abstract

Brain inflammation generally accelerates neurodegeneration. Alzheimer's disease (AD) triggers an innate immune response by activating a cytosolic DNA sensor cyclic-GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS)/stimulator of interferon genes (STING) signaling pathway. Our study investigated patients with leprosy and AD. They were treated with dapsone (4,4'-diaminodiphenyl sulfone, DDS) as a neuroinflammasome competitor and cGAS/STING pathway inhibitor. Four groups were defined: Treatment (T) 1: DDS prescribed AD diagnosed, T 2: DDS prescribed AD undiagnosed, T 3 DDS unprescribed AD diagnosed, and T 4: DDS unprescribed AD undiagnosed. Dapsone effects on AD can be clearly distinguished according to dapsone presence or absence. T1:T3 proved that the incidence of AD was significantly reduced by dapsone. T2:T3 proved that the prevalence of AD was significantly high without dapsone. T1:T4 proved that the prevalence decreased when taking dapsone. Our study demonstrates that dapsone can prevent AD exacerbation and may represent a preventive therapeutic option for exacerbated AD.

Keywords: Biological sciences; Clinical neuroscience; Health sciences; Neuroscience.