Glycodendrimers as Potential Multitalented Therapeutics in Alzheimer’s Disease

Abstract

Finding successful therapies for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the most challenging tasks existing for human health. Several drugs have been found and validated in preclinical studies with some success, but not with the desired breakthroughs in the following clinical development phases. AD causes multiple brain dysfunctions that can be described as a brain organ failure, resulting in significant cognitive decline. Aggregation of amyloid proteins and neuronal loss are the hallmarks of AD. Thus, one of the strategies to treat AD is to find a multifunctional drug that may combine both anti-aggregation and neuroprotective properties. Such a candidate could be chemically modified dendrimers. Dendrimers are branched, nonlinear molecules with multiple reactive groups located on their surface. Chemical modification of reactive surface groups defines the property of the dendrimers. In this chapter, I will discuss poly(propylene imine) dendrimers with the surface functionalized with histidine and maltose as an example of a multifunctional therapeutic drug candidate able to protect the memory of AD transgenic model mice.