Study: New Chemicals Offer Hope of Delaying Alzheimer's

A new class of chemicals has been synthesized to suppress the cellular signaling processes that trigger the inflammation of brain cells found in Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases, according to researchers at Northwestern University.

The new compounds inhibit over-activation of glia, cells of the central nervous system that help the body respond to injury or developmental change but are overactivated in neurodegenerative disease, brain injury or stroke, the researchers reported in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.

The researchers have demonstrated that excessive glia activation can be controlled by a new class of compounds that work within mechanisms of a promising new class of experimental drugs called p38 MAP kinase inhibitors that are separate from the mechanisms of inflammatory response enzyme COX-2 inhibitors.

Recent studies on the use of anti-inflammatory drugs in Alzheimer's disease patients have shown that modulating glial inflammation may be an effective therapy to delay the onset or slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegeneration.

Researchers are hopeful that their findings will lead to better therapeutic approaches.

"The direct linkage of glial activation to disease pathology underscores the importance of understanding the signal transduction pathways that mediate these critical glial cellular responses and of the need for discovery of cell-permeable drugs that can modulate disease-relevant pathways," said D. Martin Watterson, director of the Drug Discovery Program at Northwestern and lead author of the study.

Other sources: Northwestern University