Petronella Kettunen
University of Gothenburg
Sweden
Development of new therapeutics for Alzheimer´s disease
VINNOVA
234,924
01/07/2015
3
The lack of treatments of age-related disorders, such as Alzheimer´s disease (AD), is a global challenge today with the increased life expectancy. Academia, clinicians and companies need to join their efforts to develop diagnostics for early detection and new treatments. To this end, we have initiated a collaboration between University of Gothenburg (including the newly formed Centre for Cognitive Medicine, CCM) and the pharmaceutical company Neuro-Bio in the Oxford region.The overall goal of this proposal is develop future AD therapies based on newly synthetized compounds blocking a novel pathway of neurodegeneration in AD, i.e. the acetylcholine esterase (AChE) C-terminal peptides. The specific aims in this proposal include:1) Identify lead candidates for preclinical development in cell and in vivo tests2) Plan for future clinical testing of the selected candidate drug3) Investigating the biological role of AChE peptides in health and disease In this collaboration with Neuro-Bio, Dr Kettunen will introduce to the company a new in vivo model, the zebrafish (Danio rerio), to be used for toxicity and biological profiling of the lead candidates. This approach will allow for in vivo analysis of compound at an earlier stage, and further speed up the development of this project. Future clinical trials will at later stages of the project be performed in collaboration with clinicians at CCM and hospitals in Region Västra Götaland. During the time at Neuro-Bio, Dr Kettunen will acquire skills in innovation and management highly relevant for current and future success of the project, at Said Business School in Oxford.