Finally, a Promising Treatment for Alzheimer's?

This is the Medscape Neurology Minute. I'm Dr Alan Jacobs.

Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital, in conjunction with the University of California, San Diego, have published a study analyzing the mechanism by which gamma-secretase modulators reduce levels of amyloid-beta 42, the primary pathologic driver of Alzheimer disease.^[1]

Previously this group had developed a class of soluble 2-aminothiazole gamma-secretase modulators (SGSMs) that preferentially decrease amyloid-beta 42 levels and leave alone the normal processing of other cellular proteins.

Now they used a representative of this class, called SGSM-36, in animals and cell lines expressing familial Alzheimer disease mutations. They showed that SGSM-36 preferentially reduced amyloid-beta 42 levels, without affecting either alpha- or beta-secretase processing of amyloid precursor protein or Notch processing.

They also identified an allosteric site within gamma-secretase that allowed access of SGSM-36 using imaging microscopy.

The authors concluded that this SGSM class shows great therapeutic potential in Alzheimer disease.

This has been the Medscape Neurology Minute. I'm Dr Alan Jacobs.

Medscape Neurology © 2018  WebMD, LLC

Any views expressed above are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of WebMD or Medscape.

Cite this: Alan R. Jacobs. Finally, a Promising Treatment for Alzheimer's? - Medscape - Jan 30, 2018.