Researchers at University College London hope an experimental drug intended to attack a rare protein condition may also work against Alzheimer's disease and type 2 diabetes.

In lab mice, the drug shrinks protein clumps that show up in various parts of the body. The condition is amyloidosis. The study's results are published in the journal Nature.

In newly reported results in people, the drug cleared the blood of a substance that binds the lumps together. Similar clumps in the brain are a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease, and those in the pancreas are associated with type 2 diabetes. Thus, the researchers hope the drug will work against the two diseases.

The first clinical studies in Alzheimer's disease patients are about to start.

But an outside expert warns that the protein clumps also can form without the binding substance that the new drug attacks.

The researchers concede this point.

"Although amyloid deposits are closely associated with Alzheimer's disease and maturity onset diabetes, it is not known whether they actually cause these diseases," said professor Mark Pepys, the study's lead researcher. "But there is no doubt that our work offers real hope for systemic amyloidosis, a very serious conditions which, until now, has been difficult and dangerous to treat."