In a new study from the University of Glasgow, researchers has made a breakthrough “bench to bedside” discovery, which they hope will advance the future treatment of Alzheimer’s disease in patients.
They described the process of designing a new molecule to selectively target a specific receptor protein in the brain.
The finding showed the potential of this approach to create superior new drugs to improve cognitive function in Alzheimer’s disease patients.
In the study, the team focused on a protein called the M1 muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (or M1 receptor, a G protein-coupled receptor or GPCR) in the brain, which is known to play a central role in memory and cognition.
The team used a novel drug design and found the designed molecule retained optimal properties for improving memory while minimizing side effects.
Clinical studies demonstrated that the drug candidate HTL9936, at meaningful doses in healthy volunteers, showed greatly reduced side effects.
The approach has since been used to design other new molecules with superior properties for treating the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias and advance these in preclinical development.
The team says the new drug design approach offers huge potential to improve the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, by activating memory and cognitive centers within the brain.
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The study is published in Cell. One author of the study is Sosei Heptares.
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