Abstract
Many drugs that have been developed to treat neurodegenerative diseases fail to gain approval for clinical use because they are not well tolerated in humans. In this article, I describe a series of strategies for the development of neuroprotective therapeutics that are both effective and well tolerated. These strategies are based on the principle that drugs should be activated by the pathological state that they are intended to inhibit. This approach has already met with success, and has led to the development of the potentially neuroprotective drug memantine, an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)-type and glutamate receptor antagonist.
Publication types
-
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
-
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
-
Review
MeSH terms
-
Animals
-
Drug Delivery Systems / methods*
-
Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists / metabolism
-
Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists / therapeutic use
-
Humans
-
Memantine / metabolism
-
Memantine / therapeutic use
-
Neurodegenerative Diseases / drug therapy
-
Neurodegenerative Diseases / metabolism
-
Neurodegenerative Diseases / prevention & control*
-
Neuroprotective Agents / metabolism*
-
Neuroprotective Agents / therapeutic use
-
Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate / agonists
-
Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate / antagonists & inhibitors
-
Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate / metabolism
Substances
-
Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists
-
Neuroprotective Agents
-
Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate
-
Memantine