Loading patent…
AssigneeMassachusettes Institute of Technology
InventorsRobert K. K. Lee, Richard J. Wurtman
Estimating the term…
It has been discovered that lipophilic hormones that interact with cytosolic or nuclear receptors regulate APP expression and synthesis, through modification of APP mRNA stability and/or regulation of APP gene transcription and translation activities. These studies demonstrate that the treatment of brain cells with estrone or 17β-estradiol results in a reduction in the level of APP holoprotein expression, without a concomitant change in the total level of cell protein. The reduction in the level of APP holoprotein caused by estrone or 17β-estradiol is also expected to reduce the production of neurotoxic APP fragments. In as much as estrogen deficiency in postmenopausal women is associated with a higher incidence of Alzheimer's disease, this discovery opens the possibility that estrogen therapy may prevent some of the neurodegenerative and cognitive changes associated with Alzheimer's disease, aging and other disease conditions associated with such neurodegenerative and cognitive decline.
A method of inhibiting expression, production, or formation of amyloid precursor protein (APP) in a subject comprising administering to the subject an effective amount of an agent wherein said agent is a lipophilic hormone, anaalog of a lipophilic hormone, a substance that is a ligand, an agonist, or an antagonist of a receptor that is coupled to a lipophilic hormone, and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier or diluent, in which the effective amount is at least about 0.20 mg/kg body weight, and wherein said agent is selected from the group consisting of androsterone;
A method of determining the capacity of a drug to inhibit expression, production, or formation of amyloid precursor protein (APP) in an eukaryotic cell comprising:
A method of alleviating the negative effects of a neurological disorder or neurodegenerative disease stemming from the abberant expression, production, formation, or overexpression of amyloid precursor protein (APP) in a subject, comprising administering to a subject suffering from said disorder or disease an effective amount of an agent wherein said agent is a lipophilic hormone, an analog of a lipophilic hormone, a substance that is a ligand, an agonist, or an antagonist of a receptor that is coupled to a lipophilic hormone, and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier or diluent, in which the effective amount is at least about 0.20 mg/kg body weight, and wherein said agent is selected from the group consisting of androsterone;
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.