As the Alzheimer's disease (AD) population is growing rapidly, currently there are no cure treatments. The goal of this resubmitted STTR proposal is to conduct a preclinical study with pramlintide to prove a potential treatment for AD. We have revised the proposal significantly according to the reviewers'comments. Pramlintide is an FDA approved drug for diabetes and is an amylin analog. As diabetes increases the risk of AD, diabetic medications like pramlintide may be beneficial for AD as an off-label drug. Additionally, our preliminary study also suggests that amylin analogs may remove the neurotoxic amyloid-? peptide (A?) out of the AD brain. It is therefore imperative to study whether amylin and its analogs can be used as a drug for the treatment of AD. The goal of this STTR proposal is to evaluate the effect of pramlintide on the amyloid precursor protein transgenic (APP) mice, an AD mouse model. The central hypothesis of this study is that the pramlintide injection will provoke an increase of A? in the blood, and the pramlintide treatment will reduce A? from the brain into blood to improve cognitive impairment in the APP transgenic mice. The APP mice will be treated with one dose of pramlintide on a daily basis, and will be conducted to assess improved movement, coordination and learning capabilities. We will evaluate and compare the levels of soluble and precipitated A? in the cortex and hippocampus in the brains treated by the drug vs. placebo. We will also examine glucose metabolic biomarkers and tau/p-tau levels in the brains.
The goal of this revised STTR is to use pramlintide, an amylin analog and a FDA approved drug for diabetes, to study if it can reduce Amyloid- peptide (A) from the Alzheimer's brain as well as improve glucose metabolism in the brain as a treatment for AD. We will evaluate whether and how pramlintide lowers A levels to prevent cognitive dysfunction in an AD mouse model. Amylin as well as its analogs is a peptide that freely passes through the blood brain barrier (BBB) and relaxes the cerebrovasculature.
