Butyrylcholinesterase - BuChE: A potential target for development of drugs for Alzheimer's disease treatment

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a major cause of senile dementia, being responsible for most of the deaths of elderly people in developed countries. An important feature of AD is the loss of acetylcholine (ACh) in cholinergic and non-cholinergic neurons. However, acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity is increased in amyloid plaques, which has been important in therapeutic strategy using AChE inhibitors, such as donepezil and galantamine. Butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) has less affinity for ACh compared to AChE, however its activity seems to be crucial for AD process with decline in AChE levels in the advanced stages of this desease. Thus, research with selective BuChE inhibitors has been increasing considerably as a new perspective for AD treatment. In this review we highlight synthetic and natural selective BuChE inhibitors, described as drug prototypes candidates for AD.