Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S. Beyond the high economic and healthcare demands, it places a significant physical, emotional, and financial burden on family caregivers.
Patients with AD experience memory loss, confusion, mood and personality changes, and difficulty with language, often leading to social withdrawal. The biological cause of AD is linked to the accumulation of amyloid plaques, tau tangles, and synaptic loss in brain regions such as the hippocampus and cortex, which are critical for higher cognitive functions like memory retrieval.
Currently, there is no cure for Alzheimer’s, but treatments such as immunotherapy targeting amyloid plaques aim to help patients maintain their independence and quality of life for longer. Now, a potential addition to AD treatment has been synthesized by researchers at Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. Their study, published in Antioxidants, highlights a stable form of carnosic acid (CA) — a compound naturally found in rosemary and sage — which decreases AD symptoms and could be well-suited for human trials.
