In Silico Design of Preventive Drugs for Alzheimer’s Disease

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease is a debilitating dementia occurring in the elderly. Its pathological symptoms include forgetfulness and memory loss (Mattson, 2004). Disease imposes financial burden on family and society. Current line of treatment only provides symptomatic relief (Davis & Powchik 1995; Sugimoto et al., 1995). Drugs of purely curative or preventive type are still not marketed. Commonly used drugs are Acetylcholine esterase inhibitors (Sugimoto et al., 1995) which temporarily alleviate symptoms by raising levels of neurotransmitter Acetylcholine and thus improving cognitive behavior. These drugs are associated with a number of adverse side effects as well (Davis & Powchik, 1995). The aim of this chapter is to discuss strategies and hurdles in the design of preventive drugs. In the following section we briefly discuss causes behind onset and progression of disease as it is imperative to understand these issues.