The Currently Researched Sticky Molecules May Not Prevent Alzheimer's

MedlinePlus: Alzheimer's Research Target May Be a Dead End

They are too sticky molecules that would not fight the sticky proteins. This is what thought of, after a team of chemists at University of California, San Fransico, found that the candidate drug called "amyloid inhibitors" form large unwieldly clumps themselves, rendering them useless as targeted therapy against amyloid in the brain.


The new researched class of drugs that may prevent and treat Alzheimer's disease, were based theoretically on the fact that proteins in the brain called amyloid proteins stick together in the brain tissue forming plaques that are hallmark of Alzheimer's, Huntington's and "mad cow" diseases. The new drug candidate was investigated to competitively stick and stop amyloid proteins from forming clumps.


After the new chemical finding, Chemists represented by Professor B.Shoichet who is supported by Prefessor D.Lynn, see no value for the amyloid inhibitors for the following reasons:

1- The proposition that amyloid inhibitors may inhibit amyloid protein to stick together was based on a postulated interaction between an individual molecule of the drug and amyloid proteins, yet as these molecules inevitably bind together to form a mass, this renders them therapeutically useless.

2- Aggregated drug candidate molecules would not reach the target, at the needed concentration ( they would not cross the blood membrane barrier).

3- It is still not certain whether protein plaques even cause Alzheimer's and other brain diseases, or whether they are merely by products of the disease process.

Chemists advice neuroscientists investigating these agents to stop.