Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0030567 (Parkinson's disease)
 63,064 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Dexpramipexole (KNS-760704), the R(+) enantiomer of pramipexole, is under development by Knopp Neurosciences and Biogen Idec as a potential neuroprotective therapy for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a universally fatal neurodegenerative disease. Pramipexole, exclusively the S(-) enantiomer, is a non-ergot dopaminergic autoreceptor agonist that is currently marketed for use in the treatment of Parkinson's disease and restless legs syndrome. Pramipexole has been proposed to exert a broad spectrum of neuroprotective properties, primarily through antioxidant effects, inhibiting apoptotic enzymes and preserving mitochondrial structure and activity. More recent work has suggested that pramipexole possesses anti-excitotoxic properties, raising the possibility of beneficial effects in patients with ALS. However, pramipexole has high intrinsic dopaminergic receptor activity and, consequently, dose-limiting side effects, including orthostatic hypotension and hallucination, are frequent. Dexpramipexole exhibits significantly lower affinity for dopaminergic receptors, thereby making it unlikely to be associated with dopaminergic side effects. In clinical trials to date, dexpramipexole has been safe and well tolerated at doses up to 67-fold higher than the maximum recommended daily dose of pramipexole in patients with Parkinson's disease, and has demonstrated signs of neuroprotective benefit. This report summarizes the chemical and pharmacological properties of dexpramipexole and describes the potential utility of the drug in the pharmaceutical development pipeline.
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PMID:Dexpramipexole, the R(+) enantiomer of pramipexole, for the potential treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. 2115 51

Cellular stress or injury can result in mitochondrial dysfunction, which has been linked to many chronic neurological disorders including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Parkinson's disease (PD). Stressed and dysfunctional mitochondria exhibit an increase in large conductance mitochondrial membrane currents and a decrease in bioenergetic efficiency. Inefficient energy production puts cells, and particularly neurons, at risk of death when energy demands exceed cellular energy production. Here we show that the candidate ALS drug dexpramipexole (DEX; KNS-760704; ((6R)-4,5,6,7-tetrahydro-N6-propyl-2,6-benzothiazole-diamine) and cyclosporine A (CSA) inhibited increases in ion conductance in whole rat brain-derived mitochondria induced by calcium or treatment with a proteasome inhibitor, although only CSA inhibited calcium-induced permeability transition in liver-derived mitochondria. In several cell lines, including cortical neurons in culture, DEX significantly decreased oxygen consumption while maintaining or increasing production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). DEX also normalized the metabolic profile of injured cells and was protective against the cytotoxic effects of proteasome inhibition. These data indicate that DEX increases the efficiency of oxidative phosphorylation, possibly by inhibition of a CSA-sensitive mitochondrial conductance.
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PMID:Effects of dexpramipexole on brain mitochondrial conductances and cellular bioenergetic efficiency. 2236 37