title: An alternative approach to drug discovery for Alzheimer's disease dementia.
abstract: There are no drugs that halt the progression of any age-associated neurodegenerative disease. This may be due to the failure of drug developers to recognize that while there are mutations that predispose individuals to disease as they get older, the vast majority of neurodegenerative diseases arise from a confluence of multiple toxic insults. Thus, it is unlikely that the current single-target approach is going to yield useful drugs for these conditions. The identification of multi-target lead compounds is needed and their selection should be based upon a requirement for their efficacy in phenotypic screening assays that reflect the biology of the aging brain. This approach to neurodegenerative disease drug discovery is likely to produce safe and effective drugs.
authors.affiliation: The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory, 10010 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037-1002, USA. schubert@salk.edu
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schubert
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Maher
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy*; D000818:Animals; D001688:Biological Products / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects; D003704:Dementia / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy*; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D001688:Biological Products