β-amyloid disrupting drugs -: Potential in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease

Exciting recent progress in deciphering the molecular basis of Alzheimer's disease points to a crucial role of amyloid in the pathogenesis of this disorder. As a consequence, preventing and reversing cerebral amyloid deposition have become attractive therapeutic strategies for Alzheimer's disease. Biophysical and biochemical studies have shown that amyloidosis is, in essence, a problem of protein folding in which the normally soluble unstructured amyloid-beta peptide becomes organised in neurotoxic beta-pleated sheet fibrils. Compounds with the ability to stabilise the normal form of amyloid-beta peptide and/or to destabilise the pathological fibrillar structure could represent novel drugs for this devastating and so far incurable disease.