Rui Liu, PhD |Institute of Medicinal Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College; Zhuorong Li, MS; Guangzhi Shan, PhD; Ting Sun, PhD; Linjie Tan, MS; Li Zeng, MS; Zhongdi Cai, BS; Mimin Liu, BS; Kaiyue Zhao, BS
Competition Sponsor: Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences
Awardee Year: 2022
Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common form of dementia, is becoming more prevalent due to the aging population and represents one of the grand challenges to human health and longevity. However, AD has neither achieved a clinical cure nor acquired a measure to control its deterioration. It is urgent to propose new treatment strategies. Our project team focuses on the frontier field associated with gene phenotypes in health and longevity, puts forward a new idea of multi-dimensional, spatiotemporal regulation mediated by non-coding genes, and develops new candidate drugs with a novel mechanism driven by the recovery of apparent transcription and brain function. Our previous research is the first to discover that lncRNA GAS5 and miR-23b-3p play key roles in the process of AD and are highly correlated with the cognitive impairment of AD patients. Furthermore, novel aryl vinyl leading compounds have been found to have neuroprotective effects against AD via the lncRNA GAS5/miR-23b-3p/target gene loop. Based on these novel findings, our project aims to perform a new round of structure optimization, therapeutic effects, mechanisms of action, and evaluation of early druggability of the aryl vinyl leading compounds against AD. To this end, we will achieve a new strategy in the treatment of AD, composed of a series of functional spatiotemporal targets and promising candidate drugs with the brand-new structure of aryl vinyl compounds and novel drug targets, thereby contributing to the scientific and technological strength in promoting health and longevity.
To learn more about this proposal, email healthylongevity@nas.edu.