Drug Development.

Background: The autophagy lysosomal pathway (ALP) and the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) are key proteostasis mechanisms in cells, which are dysfunctional in AD and linked to protein aggregation and neuronal death. Autophagy is over activated in Alzheimer's disease brain whereas UPS is severely impaired. Activating autophagy has received most attention, however recent evidence suggests that UPS can clear aggregate proteins and a potential therapeutic target for AD and protein misfolding diseases.

Drug Development.

Background: There is an urgent need for new therapeutic and diagnostic targets for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Dementia afflicts roughly 55 million individuals worldwide, and the prevalence is increasing with longer lifespans and the absence of preventive therapies. Given the demonstrated heterogeneity of Alzheimer's disease in biological and genetic components, it is critical to identify new therapeutic approaches.

Drug Development.

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia worldwide. It is characterized by dysfunction in the U1 small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs) complex, which may precede TAU aggregation, enhancing premature polyadenylation, spliceosome dysfunction, and causing cell cycle reentry and death. Thus, we evaluated the effects of a synthetic single-stranded cDNA, called APT20TTMG, in induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) derived neurons from healthy and AD donors and in the Senescence Accelerated Mouse-Prone 8 (SAMP8) model.

Drug Development.

Background: Immunotherapy of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a promising approach to reducing the accumulation of beta-amyloid, a critical event in the onset of the disease. Targeting the group II metabotropic glutamate receptors, mGluR2 and mGluR3, could be important in controlling Aβ production, although their respective contribution remains unclear due to the lack of selective tools.

Method: 5xFAD mice were chronically treated by a brain penetrant camelid single domain antibody (VHH or nanobody) that is an activator of mGluR2.

Drug Development.

Background: Genetic studies indicate a causal role for microglia, the innate immune cells of the central nervous system (CNS), in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Despite the progress made in identifying genetic risk factors, such as CD33, and underlying molecular changes, there are currently limited treatment options for AD. Based on the immune-inhibitory function of CD33, we hypothesize that inhibition of CD33 activation may reverse microglial suppression and restore their ability to resolve inflammatory processes and mitigate pathogenic amyloid plaques, which may be neuroprotective.

Drug Development.

Background: Our previous study identified that Sildenafil (a phosphodiesterase type 5 [PDE5] inhibitor) is a candidate repurposable drug for Alzheimer's Disease (AD) using in silico network medicine approach. However, the clinically meaningful size and mechanism-of-actions of sildenafil in potential prevention and treatment of AD remind unknown.

Method: We conducted new patient data analyses using both the MarketScan® Medicare with Supplemental database (n = 7.

Drug Development.

Background: Developing drugs for treating Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been extremely challenging and costly due to limited knowledge on underlying biological mechanisms and therapeutic targets. Repurposing drugs or their combination has shown potential in accelerating drug development due to the reduced drug toxicity while targeting multiple pathologies.

Method: To address the challenge in AD drug development, we developed a multi-task machine learning pipeline to integrate a comprehensive knowledge graph on biological/pharmacological interactions and multi-level evidence on drug efficacy, to identify repurposable drugs and their combination candidates RESULT: Using the drug embedding from the heterogeneous graph representation model, we ranked drug candidates based on evidence from post-treatment transcriptomic patterns, mechanistic efficacy in preclinical models, population-based treatment effect, and Phase 2/3 clinical trials.

Drug Development.

Background: Liraglutide is a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analogue licensed for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Preclinical evidence in transgenic models of Alzheimer's disease suggests that liraglutide exerts neuroprotective effects by reducing amyloid oligomers, normalising synaptic plasticity and cerebral glucose uptake, and increasing the proliferation of neuronal progenitor cells.

Method: This is a multi-centre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase IIb trial of liraglutide in participants with mild to moderate Alzheimer's dementia, conducted at several centres in the UK.

Drug Development.

Background: The initiation of amyloid plaque deposition signifies a crucial stage in Alzheimer's disease (AD) progression, which often coincides with the disruption of neural circuits and cognitive decline. While the role of excitatory-inhibitory balance is increasingly recognized in AD pathophysiology, targeted therapies to modulate this balance remain underexplored. This study investigates the effect of perampanel, a selective non-competitive AMPA receptor antagonist, in modulating neurophysiological changes in hAPP-J20 transgenic Alzheimer's mice.

Drug Development.

Background: Astrocytes, a major glial cell in the central nervous system (CNS), can become reactive in response to inflammation or injury, and release toxic factors that kill specific subtypes of neurons. Over the past several decades, many groups report that reactive astrocytes are present in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease, as well as several other neurodegenerative diseases. In addition, reactive astrocyte sub-types most associated with these diseases are now reported to be present during CNS cancers of several types.

Drug Development.

Background: Alzheimer's disease neuropathology involves the deposition in brain of aggregates enriched with microtubule-binding-region (MTBR) of tau adopting an abnormal conformation between residues 306-378 in the core of aggregates. Anti-tau drugs targeting around this domain have the potential to interfere with the cell-to-cell propagation of pathological tau. Bepranemab is a humanized monoclonal Ig4 antibody binding to tau residues 235-250.

Drug Development.

Background: Convergent evidence indicates that deficits in the endosomal recycling pathway underlies pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). SORL1 encodes the retromer-associated receptor SORLA that plays an essential role in recycling of AD-associated cargos such as the amyloid precursor protein and the glutamatergic AMPA receptor. Importantly, loss of function pathogenic SORL1 variants are associated with AD.

Drug Development.

Background: Accumulation of amyloid beta 42 (Aβ42) senile plaques is the most critical event leading to Alzheimer's disease (AD). Currently approved drugs for AD have not been able to effectively modify the disease. This has caused increasing research interests in health beneficial nutritious plant foods as viable alternative therapy to prevent or manage AD.

Drug Development.

Background: Tau proteins aggregate in a number of neurodegenerative disorders known as tauopathies. Various studies have highlighted the role of microtubule-binding domains in the intracellular aggregation of Tau protein.

Method: Using a library of synthetic VHHs humanized in collaboration with Hybrigenics, we have developed a number of anti-tau VHHs.

Drug Development.

Background: Accumulation of misfolded a-synuclein protein in intracellular inclusion bodies of dopaminergic neurons underlies the pathogenesis of synucleinopathies, which include Parkinson's Disease (PD), Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) and Multiple System Atrophy (MSA). Therefore, clearance of misfolded α-synuclein from dopaminergic neurons could in principle offer a an approach for modifying synucleinopathies, which currently remain untreatable.

Method: In this study, we employ the Affinity-directed PROtein Missile (AdPROM) system consisting of the substrate receptor of the CUL2-E3 ligase complex VHL and a nanobody selectively recognising the human α-synuclein protein RESULT: We demonstrate targeted degradation of endogenous α-synuclein from human cell lines with exquisite selectivity.

Drug Development.

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most prevalent cause of dementia accounting for an estimated 60% to 80% of cases. Despite advances in the research field, developing truly effective therapies for AD symptoms remains a major challenge. Sweet almond contain nutrients that have the potential of combating age-related brain dysfunction, by improving learning, memory and neurocognitive performance.

Drug Development.

Background: Although investment in biomedical and pharmaceutical research has increased significantly over the past two decades, there are no oral disease-modifying treatments for Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Method: We performed comprehensive human genetic and multi-omics data analyses to test likely causal relationship between EPHX2 (encoding soluble epoxide hydrolase [sEH]) and risk of AD. Next, we tested the effect of the oral administration of EC5026 (a first-in-class, picomolar sEH inhibitor) in a transgenic mouse model of AD-5xFAD and mechanistic pathways of EC5026 in patient induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSC) derived neurons.

Drug Development.

Background: The spatiotemporal pattern of the spread of pathologically modified tau through brain regions in Alzheimer's disease (AD) can be explained by prion-like cell-to-cell seeding and propagation of misfolded tau aggregates. Hence, to develop targeted therapeutic antibodies, it is important to identify the seeding- and propagation-competent tau species. The hexapeptide VQIINK of tau is a critical region for tau aggregation, and K280 is acetylated in various tauopathies including AD.

Drug Development.

Background: DYRK1A overexpression, common in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's (AD), contributes to neurofibrillary tangles via Tau protein hyperphosphorylation and amyloid plaque formation, key AD hallmarks. Therefore, DYRK1A has been regarded as a novel target for neurodegenerative diseases. However, developing DYRK1A selective inhibitors has been a difficult challenge due to the highly conserved ATP-binding site of protein kinases, particularly among the CMGC family.

Drug Development.

Background: Abnormal aggregation and accumulation of tau is a hallmark of tauopathy including Alzheimer's disease. Effective targeting of tau for therapeutic purposes requires a clear understanding of its epitope landscape with identification of a key pathogenic tau species. Despite numerous proposed and tested tau epitopes, ranging from the N-terminus to the microtubule-binding region and C-terminus, the most effective target remains elusive.

Drug Development.

Background: The impact of probiotics as gut and immunological modulator in restoring gut microbial balance and immune cells expression have generated much attention in the health sector. Its inhibitory effect on bacterial translocation and associated neural inflammatory processes has been reported. However, there is scarcity of data on its neuroprotective impact against neuroinflammation-associated neurodegeneration and memory impairment.

Drug Development.

Background: Progranulin (GRN) plays a critical role in familial frontotemporal dementia (fFTD), where GRN haploinsufficiency leads to reduction in PGRN levels in the brain, resulting in degeneration of neurons in the frontal lobe of brain responsible for personality, language, and behavior. FTD is the most common dementia in people under 60. Sortilin (Sort1), expressed by neurons, endocytoses, and delivers PGRN rapidly to lysosomes for degradation.

Drug Development.

Background: Small, soluble oligomers, rather than mature fibrils, are the major neurotoxic agents in Alzheimer's disease (AD). In the last few years, Aprile and co-workers designed and purified a single-domain antibody (sdAb), called DesAb-O, with high specificity for Aβ oligomeric conformers. Recently, Cascella and co-workers showed that DesAb-O can selectively detect synthetic Aβ oligomers both in vitro and in cultured cells, neutralizing their associated neuronal dysfunction.

Drug Development.

Background: Efforts to genetically reverse C9orf72 pathology have been hampered by our incomplete understanding of the regulation of this complex locus.

Method: We generated five different genomic excisions at the C9orf72 locus in a patient-derived iPSC line and a WT line (11 total isogenic lines), and examined gene expression and pathological hallmarks of C9 FTD/ALS in motor neurons differentiated from these lines. Comparing the excisions in these isogenic series removed the confounding effects of different genomic backgrounds and allowed us to probe the effects of specific genomic changes.

Drug Development.

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an age-dependent neurodegenerative disorder with limited treatment options. As it progresses, synapse degeneration is the most important feature contributing to cognitive dysfunction. Mitochondria supply synapses with ATP for neurotransmitter release and vesicle recycling and buffer calcium concentrations.