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3 - Alzheimer’s Disease Drug Discovery in Academia: From High-Throughput Screening to In Vivo Testing

from Section 1 - Advancing Alzheimer’s Disease Therapies in a Collaborative Science Ecosystem

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2022

By
Kurt R. Brunden ,
Goodwell Nzou  and
Carlo Ballatore
Edited by
Jeffrey Cummings ,
Jefferson Kinney  and
Howard Fillit
Jeffrey Cummings
Affiliation:
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Jefferson Kinney
Affiliation:
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Howard Fillit
Affiliation:
Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation
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Summary

There is a tremendous need for disease-modifying treatments for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The pharmaceutical sector has expended considerable resources on AD drug discovery, yet to date have obtained regulatory approval for only one agent that slows AD progression. This has led to increased interest in identifying new AD drug targets and disease mechanisms. Academic laboratories can play a meaningful role in the validation of AD drug targets and the identification of molecular probes that modulate these targets. We discuss here how academic researchers can contribute to the AD drug discovery process. This includes examples of assays that have been used for AD small molecule screens within academic laboratories, and discussions on assay optimization for compound screening, the selection of molecular libraries, and the iterative process of compound optimization to identify molecules suitable for advancement to in vivo pharmacokinetic, safety, and efficacy testing. Finally, we outline how academic researchers might work with pharmaceutical partners in AD drug discovery, and note the pros and cons of such collaborations.

Keywords

AssaysCollaborationsCompoundsLibrariesMedicinal ChemistryOptimizationPharmacokineticsScreening
Type
Chapter
Information
Alzheimer's Disease Drug Development
Research and Development Ecosystem
 , pp. 34 - 44
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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