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Procognitive Compounds Promote Neurite Outgrowth
Matthew Page1, Nathalie Pacico, Sadia Ourtioualous
1Translational Bioinformatics, UCB Pharma SA, Slough, UK.
Background/Aims:
To this date, the only available drugs for treating Alzheimer's disease are cognitive enhancers, which may improve the cognitive function of patients for a few years while the disease continues to progress. As such, there are intense investigations to develop disease-modifying drugs to suppress progressive neurodegeneration.
Methods:
In this study, a range of procognitive compounds are tested in a primary neuronal culture to determine their relative potential for promoting neuritogenesis.
Results:
We report that donepezil, memantine, dimebon, Pre-084 and 4-IBP are neuritogenic while tacrine, rosemarinic acid, memoquin and a BACE1 inhibitor suppress neurite outgrowth of neurons.
Conclusions:
The results of this study indicate that some procognitive compounds may possess a disease-modifying potential.
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