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NEUROPHARMACOLOGY

Identification of Novel Small Molecule Inhibitors of Amyloid Precursor Protein Synthesis as a Route to Lower Alzheimer's Disease Amyloid- Peptide

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Feist-Weiller Cancer Center, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, Shreveport, Louisiana (T.U., T.G.); Section on Drug Design and Development, Laboratory of Neurosciences, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, Maryland (T.U., Q.Y., H.W.H., N.H.G.); Lead Discovery, Message Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Malvern, Pennsylvania (D.D., T.G.); Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatric Research, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana (D.C., D.K.L.); School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina (A.B.); and Department of Physiology and Neuroscience, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina (K.S.)

A wealth of independent research with transgenic mice, antibodies, and vaccines has pointed to a causative role of the amyloid- peptide (A) in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Based on these and earlier associative studies, A represents a promising target for development of therapeutics focused on AD disease progression. Interestingly, a cholinesterase inhibitor currently in clinical trials, phenserine, has been shown to inhibit production of both amyloid precursor protein (APP) and A. We have shown that this inhibition occurs at the post-transcriptional level with a specific blocking of the synthesis of APP relative to total protein synthesis (Shaw et al., 2001). However, the dose of phenserine necessary to block APP production is far higher than that needed to elicit its anticholinesterase activity, and it is these latter actions that are dose limiting in vivo. The focus of this study was to screen 144 analogs of phenserine to identify additional small molecules that inhibit APP protein synthesis, and thereby A production, without possessing potent acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitory activity. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to identify analogs capable of suppressing APP production following treatment of human neuroblastoma cells with 20 µM of compound. Eight analogs were capable of dose dependently reducing APP and A production without causing cell toxicity in further studies. Several of these analogs had little to no AChE activities. Translation of APP and A actions to mice was demonstrated with one agent. They thus represent interesting lead molecules for assessment in animal models, to define their tolerance and utility as potential AD therapeutics.

Address correspondence to: Dr. Tony Giordano, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Feist-Weiller Cancer Center, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, Shreveport, LA 71115. E-mail: agiord{at}lsuhsc.edu

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