Ebiomedicine: Study reveals drug prebiotics that treat ALS.

March 20, 2020 /--- In a recent study, researchers from Liverpool and Nagoya universities showed that a selenium-based drug molecule called ebselen and other new compounds developed in Liverpool can alter many toxic characteristics of hyperoxidase (SOD1), thereby contributing to the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
the study was published in the journal EBioMedicine.
alS is a neurodegenerative disease that affects motor neurons and the neurons between our brains and muscles.
with ALS tend to experience symptoms of paralysis, most of whom die within 2 to 5 years of diagnosis.
about 20% of familial ALS cases are caused by explicit mutations in the sod1 gene.
in familial cases, mutations and aggregation of the mutant SOD1 protein are one of the known causes of the disease.
in 2017, Edaravone remains the only drug with limited efficacy.
of the original SOD structure is considered a key strategy to avoid protein aggregation.
this, the team developed a number of ebselen-based compounds that have been effective in terms of the stability of SOD1 and in-body therapeutic effects, much more effectively than Edaravone.
s fact that a new generation of organic selenium compound Edaravone has better in-body neuroprotect protection offers important prospects for the potential of such compounds as alternative therapies," said Professor Samar Hasnain, a professor at the University of London.
"The ability of these compounds to target cysteine may have broader therapeutic applications," said Professor Paul O'Neill, who is in charge of the pharmaceutical chemistry program. "Our pharmaceutical chemistry approach, guided by protein-ligation crystallology studies, focuses on the design of ebselen similars, which have improved in-body efficacy and excellent predictable central nervous system exposure and improved effects."
drug design through this multi-parameter optimization approach, the next critical stage will be to screen our next-generation compounds in appropriate disease models.
Professor Koji Yamanaka, a neurologist at Nagoya University, said: "It is encouraging that many new selenium compounds have better in-body neuroprotective protection in mouse neuron cells than Edaravone.
ebselen can delay the onset of disease in the body and is expected to be further improved in the ALS mouse model for the first time."
(bioon.com) Source: Scientists identify offers new ALS drug candidates Original source: Kangsa Amporndanai et al, Novel Selenium-base compounds with therapeutic potential for SOD1-linked amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, EBioMedicine (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2020.102980.