Researchers identify eight new active molecules against Alzheimer

Apr 11 2014

Researchers of the Unit of Medicine Design and Molecular Topology (Department of Physics Chemistry) of the University of Valencia (UV) have discovered eight new active molecules against Alzheimer by a novel mechanism of action, different to the currently used medicines. The work has just been published in the "Plos One" magazine.

One of the most relevant aspects of the work is that the new molecules have been designed following a mechanism which not only implies the inhibition of the deposit of the beta-amyloid protein, which causes the disease to originate and the creation of small fragments of protein, called oligomers, which originate in the initial stages of the disease and seem to play a determinant role in the development of the process.

The director of the team, the full university professor Jorge Galvez, specifies that molecules have been designed "following a methodology called molecular topology, the team has been working on that methodology since the Eighties".

The laboratory testing which have confirmed the activity of the new molecules have been carried out by the prestigious Mount Sinai School of Medicine of New York, under the direction of Giulio M. Pasinetti, professor of neurology in the at that centre and director of the Centre of Excellence for complementary treatment of Alzheimer of that institution. In the tests on molecules, which have shown activity both in vitro (neuronal cellular cultures) and in live (in transgenic mice), it has also taken part Japanese and North American researchers.

The group of Medicine Design and Molecular Topology of the UV has worked under the leadership of the professors Gálvez y García-Domenech in the design of many other kinds of medicines (including anticancer medicines, antihistamines, analgesics, food additives and pesticide residues, quoting some examples) being authors of more than a hundred of scientific publications on the issue in international magazines, as well as several national and international patents. According to Jorge Galvez, "this information demonstrates that nce more molecular typology is a potent tool to the design of new medicines and, in general, of new active molecules in different applications, including agriculture, food, etc…"