The new compounds can bind to excess iron in the brain and might prevent it from participating in the formation of abnormal protein deposits that are typically seen in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease.

Speaking at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s annual event in Manchester, the British Pharmaceutical Conference, Mr Sourav Roy from King’s College London described tests to find new iron-binding agents capable of crossing the blood–brain barrier – the walls of the tiny blood capillaries to the brain that control the flow of food and chemicals into brain cells.

Iron is known to accumulate in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease and has been linked to the development of abnormal protein deposits – or plaques – that cause nerve damage, leading to Alzheimer’s symptoms, such as memory loss [1]. By binding to the excess iron and taking it out of the brain into the bloodstream, it is hoped that the new iron-binding agents will play a part in preventing Alzheimer’s disease.

‘To develop new anti-Alzheimer treatments, we need drugs that can cross the blood–brain barrier, and we have discovered four new agents that are better at getting into brain cells than an iron-binding drug that is currently used to treat conditions where there is too much iron in the bloodstream,’ explained Roy.

The four iron-binding agents will now be tested to see if they can protect nerve cells from the type of damage that occurs in Alzheimer’s disease.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia and affects approximately 417,000 people in the UK [2]. Symptoms include memory loss, confusion and mood swings. Current treatments might delay the progression of the disease but do not cure or prevent it.

References

1 Gaeta, A. and Hider, R.C. (2005) The crucial role of metal ions in neurodegeneration: the basis for a promising therapeutic strategy. Br. J. Pharmacol. 146, 1041–1059
2 Alzheimer’s Society. What is Alzheimer’s disease? http://www.alzheimers.org.uk