Anti-oxidant therapy in Alzheimer's disease

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Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a devastating neurological illness with no known cure, yet a central hypothesis implicating oxidative stress as a cause of the disease has been postulated for more than a decade. AD is characterized in post-mortem tissue by the presence of senile plaques that result from the progressive brain accumulation of amyloid-p (A(3)peptides; thus Ap is the principle therapeutic target for treating AD. There are numerous studies with anti-oxidant therapy, however none examine the AD-specific contribution quantitatively. Clinical trials with anti-oxidant therapy have have also shown limited efficacy. Our approach provides quantitative readouts of AD-specific oxidative stress to optimize an anti-oxidant treatment. While we have shown that oxidative stress results from the senile plaques of AD themselves, it is likely that other p species, such as small diffusible aggregates, oligpmers, or Ap derived diffusible ligands (ADDLs) are also a source of reactive oxygen species. This grant application proposes to identify aggregated and soluble Ap components that are sources of oxidative stress, and evaluate anti-oxidant treatments for protective activity both in vitro and in vivo using transgenic mouse models of AD. Our strength lies in the utilization of. sophisticated imaging techniques based on multiphoton microscopy that allow us to image senile plaques structurally and functionally in vitro and in vivo. Small diffusible aggregates of Ap like oligomers and ADDLs can be analyzed and characterized using high-throughput plate-reader assays or multiphoton fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (PCS). Anti-oxidants can be tested for their ability to reduce or prevent the oxidative stress resulting from these small toxic Ap species. In combination, these experimental paradigms will be used to screen potential anti-oxidants from both traditional and alternative sources to systematically evaluate whether compounds like ginkgo biloba extract, vitamin E, or grape seed extract are effective anti- oxidants for Alzheimer's disease treatment. The results will bridge the gap between the description of oxidative stress in Alzheimer's disease to direct determination of the anti-oxidant ability of natural and synthetic products that should hold promise for treatment of AD patients.