Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0751295 (memory loss)
 3,619 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

N-PEP-12 is a derivative of cerebrolysin, a brain-derived neuropeptide compound that has been approved for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in more than 30 countries. N-PEP-12 is much less potent than cerebrolysin but it can be administered orally whereas the parent compound must be administered through multiple intravenous infusions. This study was undertaken to determine whether N-PEP-12 is effective in improving memory and other cognitive abilities among healthy older adults who have experienced 'normal' age-related memory loss. Subjects were 54 males and females, aged 50 years and older, who presented both subjective and objective evidence of memory loss since early adulthood. The study was a fully randomized, double-blind comparison of N-PEP-12 and placebo. Cognitive assessments were performed at baseline and following 30 days of treatment. The primary outcome measure was the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive (ADAS-cog) Memory score, with the Syndrom Kurz Test (SKT) test, digit cancellation, digit span, verbal fluency and clinical ratings as secondary outcomes. N-PEP-12 treated subjects performed better than placebo-treated subjects on the ADAS-cog Memory score, the SKT, clinical ratings and some, but not other tests. N-PEP-12 may be an effective treatment for memory loss in healthy older adults.
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PMID:Effects of N-PEP-12 on memory among older adults. 1572 85

Prolyl endopeptidase (PEP, EC 3.4.21.26) is widely distributed in various organs, particularly in the brains of amnestic patients. Evaluation of PEP levels in postmortem brains of Alzheimer's disease patients revealed significant increases in PEP activity, suggesting that a specific PEP inhibitor can be a good candidate for an antiamnestic drug. In this study, mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids were investigated to determine their role as PEP inhibitors. Oleic, linoleic, and arachidonic acids, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) showed PEP inhibitory activities (IC50 values of 23.6 +/- 0.4, 43.8 +/- 1.8, 53.4 +/- 1.2, 99.4 +/- 1.2, and 46.2 +/- 1.0 microM, respectively), indicating that they were effective PEP inhibitors, with inhibition constant (Ki) values of 26.7 +/- 0.3, 51.0 +/- 0.7, 91.3 +/- 3.1, 247.5 +/- 2.6, and 89.0 +/- 2.3 microM, respectively. Oleic acid showed the highest PEP inhibitory activity. Dixon plots of PEP inhibition showed oleic, linoleic, and arachidonic acids, EPA, and DHA are noncompetitive inhibitors; despite higher IC50 values of these unsaturated fatty acids than strong natural inhibitors, they may have potential use in preventing memory loss.
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PMID:Prolyl endopeptidase inhibitory activity of unsaturated fatty acids. 1647 42

Prolyl endopeptidase (PEP, EC 3.4.21.26) is a proline-specific endopeptidase with a serine-type mechanism, which digests small peptide-like hormones, neuroactive peptides, and various cellular factors. PEP has been involved in neurodegenerative disorders, therefore, the discovery of PEP inhibitors can revert memory loss caused by amnesic compounds. In this study, we prepared hetero-chitooligosaccharides (COSs) with different molecular sizes using ultrafiltration (UF) membrane reactor system from hetero-chitosan with different degrees of deacetylation (DD; 90%, 75% and 50% deacetylation), and synthesized sulfated COSs (SCOSs). PEP inhibitory activities of SCOSs were evaluated and the results showed that 50% deacetylated SCOSs (50-SCOSs) exhibited higher inhibitory activities than those of 90% and 75% deacetylated SCOSs (90-SCOSs and 75-SCOSs). Among the 50-SCOSs (50-SCOS I, 5000-10,000Da; 50-SCOS II, 1000-5000Da; 50-SCOS III, below 1000Da), 50-SCOS II possessed the highest inhibitory activity and IC(50) value was 0.38mg/ml. Kinetics studies with 50-SCOS II indicated a competitive enzyme inhibition with a K(i) value of 0.78mg/ml. It was concluded that the 50-SCOS II may be useful for PEP inhibitor and for developing a new type PEP inhibitor from carbohydrate based materials.
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PMID:Sulfated chitooligosaccharides as prolyl endopeptidase inhibitor. 1771 77

Aging is a stage of life where cognitive and motor functions are impaired. This is because oxidative and inflammatory processes exacerbate neurodegeneration, which affects dendritic morphology and neuronal communication of limbic regions with memory loss. Recently, the use of trophic substances has been proposed to prevent neuronal deterioration. The neuropeptide-12 (N-PEP-12) has been evaluated in elderly patients with dementia, showing improvements in cognitive tasks due to acts as a neurotrophic factor. In the present work, we evaluated the effect of N-PEP-12 on motor activity and recognition memory, as well as its effects on dendritic morphology and the immunoreactivity of GFAP, Synaptophysin (SYP), and BDNF in neurons of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), dorsal hippocampus (DH) and nucleus accumbens (NAcc) of aged rats. The results show that N-PEP-12 improved the recognition memory, but the motor activity was not modified compared to the control animals. N-PEP-12 increases the density of dendritic spines and the total dendritic length in neurons of the PFC (layers 3 and 5) and in DH (CA1 and CA3). Interestingly NAcc neurons showed a reduction in the number of dendritic spines. In the N-PEP-12 animals, when evaluating the immunoreactivity for SYP and BDNF, there was an increase in the three brain regions, while the mark for GFAP decreased significantly. Our results suggest that N-PEP-12 promotes neuronal plasticity in the limbic system of aged animals, which contributes to improving recognition memory. In this sense, N-PEP-12 can be considered as a pharmacological alternative to prevent or delay brain aging and control senile dementias.
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PMID:The neuropeptide-12 improves recognition memory and neuronal plasticity of the limbic system in old rats. 2974 Aug 71