Co-Deposited Proteins in Alzheimer’s Disease as a Potential Treasure Trove for Drug Repurposing

TL;DR

This paper explores proteins found in Alzheimer's amyloid plaques to identify new drugs that could be repurposed for treating the disease.

Contribution

The study identifies 72 drugs targeting co-deposited plaque proteins that are distinct from FDA-approved Alzheimer's drugs.

Findings

12 co-deposited proteins in amyloid plaques interact with 513 other proteins.

72 drugs target these plaque proteins, differing from FDA-approved Alzheimer's drugs.

These drugs suggest potential for repurposing in Alzheimer's treatment.

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) affects an increasing number of people as the human population ages. The main pathological feature of AD, amyloid plaques, consists of the key protein amyloid-β and other co-deposited proteins. These co-deposited proteins and their protein interactors could hold some additional functional insights into AD pathophysiology. For this work, proteins found on amyloid plaques were collected from the AmyCo database. A protein–protein and protein–drug interaction network was constructed with data from the IntAct and DrugBank databases, respectively. In total, there were 12 proteins co-deposited on amyloid plaques that reportedly interact with 513 other proteins and are targets of 72 drugs. These drugs were shown to be almost entirely distinct from the panel of drugs currently approved by the FDA for AD and their corresponding protein targets. In conclusion, this work demonstrates the potential for drug repurposing of drugs that target proteins found in amyloid plaques.

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