ABSTRACT
'A peculiar severe disease process of the cerebral cortex' are the exact words used by A. Alzheimer in 1906 to describe a patient's increasingly severe condition of memory loss, changes in personality, and sleep disturbance. A century later, this 'peculiar' disease has become widely known as Alzheimer's disease (AD), the world's most common neurodegenerative disease, affecting more than 35 million people globally. At the same time, its pathology remains unclear and no successful treatment exists. Several theories for AD etiology have emerged throughout the past century. In this review, we focus on the metabolic mechanisms that are similar between AD and metabolic diseases, based on the results from genome-wide association studies. We discuss signaling pathways involved in both types of disease and look into new optogenetic methods to study the in vivo mechanisms of AD.
Subject(s)
Alzheimer Disease/metabolism , Cerebral Cortex/metabolism , Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/metabolism , Glucose/metabolism , Neuroprotective Agents/therapeutic use , Signal Transduction/genetics , Alzheimer Disease/drug therapy , Alzheimer Disease/genetics , Alzheimer Disease/pathology , Amyloid beta-Peptides/genetics , Amyloid beta-Peptides/metabolism , Cerebral Cortex/drug effects , Cerebral Cortex/pathology , Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/drug therapy , Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/genetics , Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/pathology , Dipeptidyl-Peptidase IV Inhibitors/therapeutic use , Gene Expression Regulation , Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 beta/genetics , Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 beta/metabolism , Humans , Insulin/metabolism , Insulin Resistance , Metformin/therapeutic use , Optogenetics/methods , Oxidative Stress/drug effects , Signal Transduction/drug effects , Sulfonylurea Compounds/therapeutic use , tau Proteins/genetics , tau Proteins/metabolismABSTRACT
Compounds with activity at serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine) 5-HT2 and α1 adrenergic receptors have potential for the treatment of central nervous system disorders, drug addiction or overdose. Isolaureline, dicentrine and glaucine enantiomers were synthesized, and their in vitro functional activities at human 5-HT2 and adrenergic α1 receptor subtypes were evaluated. The enantiomers of isolaureline and dicentrine acted as antagonists at 5-HT2 and α1 receptors with (R)-isolaureline showing the greatest potency (pKb = 8.14 at the 5-HT2C receptor). Both (R)- and (S)-glaucine also antagonized α1 receptors, but they behaved very differently to the other compounds at 5-HT2 receptors: (S)-glaucine acted as a partial agonist at all three 5-HT2 receptor subtypes, whereas (R)-glaucine appeared to act as a positive allosteric modulator at the 5-HT2A receptor.
Subject(s)
Aporphines/chemistry , Receptor, Serotonin, 5-HT2A/metabolism , Receptors, Adrenergic, alpha-1/metabolism , Serotonin/chemistry , Adrenergic alpha-1 Receptor Agonists/chemistry , Adrenergic alpha-1 Receptor Agonists/metabolism , Aporphines/metabolism , Binding Sites , HEK293 Cells , Humans , Kinetics , Molecular Docking Simulation , Protein Structure, Tertiary , Receptor, Serotonin, 5-HT2A/chemistry , Receptor, Serotonin, 5-HT2A/genetics , Receptors, Adrenergic, alpha-1/chemistry , Receptors, Adrenergic, alpha-1/genetics , Serotonin/metabolism , Serotonin 5-HT2 Receptor Agonists/chemistry , Serotonin 5-HT2 Receptor Agonists/metabolism , Stereoisomerism , Structure-Activity RelationshipABSTRACT
[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1039/C7MD00629B.].
ABSTRACT
In this study, the (S)-enantiomers of the aporphine alkaloids, nuciferine and roemerine, were prepared via a synthetic route involving catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation and both stereoisomers were evaluated in vitro for functional activity at human 5-HT2 and adrenergic α1 receptor subtypes using a transforming growth factor-α shedding assay. Both enantiomers of each of the compounds were found to act as antagonists at 5-HT2 and α1 receptors. (R)-roemerine was the most potent compound at 5-HT2A and 5-HT2C receptors (pKb = 7.8-7.9) with good selectivity compared to (S)-roemerine at these two receptors and compared to its activity at 5-HT2B, α1A, α1B and α1D receptors.
