32nd Annual Student Research Conference
Determining the Viability of Calpain Inhibitors as Drugs for Alzheimer's Disease
Ari Vera
Dr. Bill R. Miller, Faculty Mentor
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Researchers look to prevent the progression of AD and one potential treatment is with highly selective calpain inhibitors. Calpain, a protease enzyme, assists in the observed neurodegeneration by regulating proteins that are essential for Alzheimer’s. Highly selective calpain inhibitors are necessary to prevent negative side effects from other proteases. A study by Kling et al looked at potential calpain inhibitors and determined their inhibitory efficacy experimentally. This study will look at those inhibitors using molecular dynamics to assess their viability as an inhibitor. Promising potential inhibitors from the ZINC Fragments database were docked, analyzed, and compared to the standards established by Kling et al. Preliminary results suggest that the standard calpain inhibitors are following the trends demonstrated by Kling et al, yet more testing is required for using these inhibitors as standards. MD and analysis on the potential ZINC inhibitors is ongoing.
Keywords: Drug Design, Alzheimer's Disease, Calpain , Inhibitors, Computational Chemistry
Topic(s):Chemistry
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 211-1
Location: MC 212
Time: 10:15