(62c) Peptoid-Based Therapeutics for Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a slow degenerative disease that causes memory loss and eventually leads to death. AD is caused by the aggregation of the amyloid-beta protein , found on the outside of brain cells; once the amyloid-beta protein begins to aggregate it forms plaques on the extracellular part of the neural cells. So far there is no AD medication available that breaks up the amyloid aggregates. Current research has found that certain molecules bind to the amyloid-beta protein and prevent aggregation. The purpose of this research project is to engineer peptoid-based molecules for the therapeutic treatment of AD. Peptoids form strong helices, have high bioactivity, and are easy and cost-effective to synthesize. Three peptoids designed to have different chemistries at only the 6th side chain have been chosen; the first peptoid is positive, the second peptoid is neutral, and the third peptoid is negative. We have synthesized all three peptoids and are in the process of purification and characterization. The ability of the peptoids to bind amyloid-beta protein will provide important information on the use of peptoids for the therapeutic treatment of AD.