title: New anti-Alzheimer drugs from biodiversity: the role of the natural acetylcholinesterase inhibitors.
abstract: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative pathology with severe economic and social impact. There is currently no cure, although cholinesterase inhibitors provide effective temporary relief of symptoms in some patients. Nowadays, drug research and development are based on the cholinergic hypothesis that supports the cognition improvement by regulation of the synthesis and release of acetylcholine in the brain. There are only four commercial medicines approved for treatment of AD, and natural products have played an important alternative role in the research for new acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, as exemplified through the discovery of galantamine. This profile conducts us to give in this paper an overview relating the several classes of natural products with anti-cholinesterasic activity as potential templates to the design of new selective and powerful anti-Alzheimer drugs.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Avaliação e Síntese de Substâncias Bioativas, Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, P.O.Box 68023, 21944-971, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Cláudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Viegas
authors.forename: Vanderlan da Silva
authors.initials: Vda S
authors.lastname: Bolzani
authors.forename: Eliezer J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Barreiro
authors.forename: Carlos Alberto Manssour
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Fraga
mesh_terms: D000109:Acetylcholine / Q000378:metabolism*; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000201:enzymology / Q000378:metabolism; D044822:Biodiversity; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D002800:Cholinesterase Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005702:Galantamine / Q000494:pharmacology; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D002800:Cholinesterase Inhibitors; D005702:Galantamine; D000109:Acetylcholine