Molecule successful in treating Alzheimer's disease in mice

Researchers at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the University of Barcelona (UB) have successfully tested the ASS234 molecule in transgenic mice models of Alzheimer's diseases.

 

One of the first molecules obtained in this project. Alzheimer's disease is a neurological disorder which greatly affects older people. It presents a complex neurodegenerative pathology which not only causes a progressive loss of cognitive abilities (memory, language, learning), but also produces psychiatric disorders (anxiety, depression, apathy, aggressiveness, etc.). Although the direct causes of the disease are yet unknown, the senile plaques, neurofibrillary tangle, oxidative damage to different cell structures and the low levels of acetylcholine neurotransmission are key factors in the development of this pathology.

The ASS234 molecule inhibits the enzymes monoamine oxidase (A and B), acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase, all involved in the biochemical processes causing neurodegenerative disorders, and displays a neuroprotective effect in transgenic mice models of Alzheimer's disease.

The patent of the molecule was recently granted by the United States to the Spanish company Inurrieta Consultoria Integral and is currently being presented to different pharmaceutical laboratories.

The ASS234 molecule was developed as a hybrid of two known molecules. One of them is donepezil (Aricept®), currently used to treat Alzheimer's disease. The other molecule is the PF9601N compound, an inhibitor of the monoamino oxidase B (MAO B) enzyme, patented and developed by researchers at UAB and CSIC, with proven neuroprotective effects in different experimental models of Parkinson's disease.

The research was conducted by José Luis Marco Contelles, CSIC researcher at the Institute of General Organic Chemistry (IQOG), and Mercedes Unzeta, researcher of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and of the Institute of Neurosciences (INc) at the UAB.

It has counted on the contribution of Abdelouahid Samadi, at the CSIC’s Institute of General Organic Chemistry (IQOG), in the organic synthesis; Irene Bolea (UAB), who has assessed the biochemical activity and pharmacological potential of the molecule; F. Javier Luque and Jordi Juárez-Jiménez, at the Department of Physical Chemistry at the Faculty of Pharmacy and the Institute of Biomedicine of the UB (IBUB), doing the studies on the interactions of ASS234 with its possible targets; Alejandro Romero, at the department of Toxicology and Pharmacology at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, who has done the toxicity studies; and Ricardo M. Murillo and Raquel Herrero-Labrador, at the CSIC’s Cajal Institute, who carried out the in vivo studies.

Related:

Moléculas neuroprotectoras para el Alzheimer y el Parkinson
Nuevos avances en fármacos para el tratamiento del Alzheimer

 

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