--- title: Alzheimer's Researchers Reverse the Disease in Mice description: Mice with memory loss were able to regain cognitive function canonical: https://time.com/3086480/alzheimers-disease-has-been-reversed-in-mice/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-06T15:48:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T09:31:55.461Z article:section: Health og:title: Alzheimer's Disease Has Been Reversed in Mice og:description: A promising new discovery og:url: https://time.com/3086480/alzheimers-disease-has-been-reversed-in-mice/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Alzheimer's Disease Has Been Reversed in Mice twitter:description: A promising new discovery twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Alzheimer's Disease Has Been Reversed in Mice by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Aug 6, 2014 3:48 PM UTC by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Aug 6, 2014 3:48 PM UTC Though all mice studies should be viewed with quelled excitement, a new Yale School of Medicine study shows that scientists were able to reverse Alzheimer’s disease with a single dose of a drug compound. The researchers gave mice with Alzheimer’s a compound called TC-2153, which prohibits a protein called STEP (Striatal-Enriched tyrosine Phosphatase) from interfering with the brains’ ability to learn and make memories. Synapses in the brain need to strengthen so that the brain can turn short-term memories into long-term memories, but STEP prevents synapses from doing so, and this can lead to neurological disorders including Alzheimer’s. The mice with memory loss who were given the compound were able to recover their cognitive function, and the researchers say they were indistinguishable from normal, control mice. The researchers, who [published](http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001923) their recent work in the journal _PLOS Biology,_ are now testing the compound’s ability in other animals. It will still be a long time before a compound like this is tested in humans, but the preliminary finding is encouraging since very few experiments have actually been able to reverse the disease, which currently [affects](http://www.cdc.gov/aging/aginginfo/alzheimers.htm) about five million Americans and is expected to grow dramatically in coming years. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3086480/alzheimers-disease-has-been-reversed-in-mice/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3086480/alzheimers-disease-has-been-reversed-in-mice/"},"headline":"Alzheimer's Disease Has Been Reversed in Mice","datePublished":"2014-08-06T15:48:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:31:55.461Z","description":"Mice with memory loss were able to regain cognitive function","url":"https://time.com/3086480/alzheimers-disease-has-been-reversed-in-mice/","keywords":["Research","Mice","Alzheimer's","memory"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3086480/alzheimers-disease-has-been-reversed-in-mice/","name":"Alzheimer's Disease Has Been Reversed in Mice"}}]}] ```