Researchers continue to deliver promising news for patients stricken with Alzheimer’s disease. Months after scientists found that an insulin nasal spray slowed the disease’s progression, there’s evidence that a skin cancer drug managed to reverse the disease in mice.

CNN delivers the news from a Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine study published in the journal Science. The study found that large doses of the drug bexarotene helped Alzheimer’s-stricken mice recover memory functions and show less amyloid plaque in their brains — a sign of the disease — within three days.

As the lead researcher notes, the fact that a treatment works on mice doesn’t necessarily mean it will help people. But at least researchers have something new to try. Healthy human patients could start to receive experimental bexarotene treatments within months to see if the drug scales back amyloid plaque levels in them as well.

Skin cancer drug reverses Alzheimer’s in mice [CNN]

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