Abstract
Until now effective drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease [AD] are not available. Here we show that flupirtine, a triaminopyridine derivative, which is successfully applied in clinics as a non-opiate analgesic drug protects rat cortical neurons against the ß-amyloid peptide [Aß]-induced cell death in vitro. The cells were treated for five days with 1 μM of the toxic fragment Aß25-35 in the presence or absence of flupirtine. 1 μM of Aß25-35 caused reduction of cell viability to 31.1 %. Preincubation of cells with 1 or 5 μg/ml of flupirtine resulted in a significant increase of the percentage of viable cells to 74.6 and 65.4 %, respectively. Due to the favourable pharmacokinetic profile and the potent neuroprotective effect, flupirtine is a promising drug for the treatment of neuronal loss in AD and probably other neurological diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 575-600 |
Number of pages | 26 |
Journal | Journal of Brain Research |
Volume | 37 |
Issue number | 4 |
Publication status | Published - 1996 |
Externally published | Yes |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Neuroscience(all)
- Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology