Merging memantine and ferulic acid to probe connections between NMDA receptors, oxidative stress and amyloid-β peptide in Alzheimer's disease
作者:Michela Rosini、Elena Simoni、Roberta Caporaso、Filippo Basagni、Michele Catanzaro、Izuddin F. Abu、Francesca Fagiani、Federica Fusco、Sara Masuzzo、Diego Albani、Cristina Lanni、Ian R. Mellor、Anna Minarini
DOI:10.1016/j.ejmech.2019.07.011
日期:2019.10
N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDAR) are critically involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Acting as an open-channel blocker, the anti-AD drug memantine preferentially targets NMDAR overactivation, which has been proposed to trigger neurotoxic events mediated by amyloid beta peptide (A beta) and oxidative stress. In this study, we applied a multifunctional approach by conjugating memantine to ferulic acid, which is known to protect the brain from A beta neurotoxicity and neuronal death caused by ROS. The most interesting compound (7) behaved, like memantine, as a voltage-dependent antagonist of NMDAR (IC50 = 6.9 mu M). In addition, at 10 mu M concentration, 7 exerted antioxidant properties both directly and indirectly through the activation of the Nrf-2 pathway in SH-SY5Y cells. At the same concentration, differently from the parent compounds memantine and ferulic acid alone, it was able to modulate A beta production, as revealed by the observed increase of the non-amyloidogenic sAPP alpha in H4-SW cells. These findings suggest that compound 7 may represent a promising tool for investigating NMDAR-mediated neurotoxic events involving A beta burden and oxidative damage. (C) 2019 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.