NFTs – Alectos Therapeutics

MK-8719, a Novel and Selective O-GlcNAcase Inhibitor That Reduces the Formation of Pathological Tau and Ameliorates Neurodegeneration in a Mouse Model of Tauopathy

Deposition of hyperphosphorylated and aggregated tau protein in the central nervous system is characteristic of Alzheimer disease and other tauopathies. Tau is subject to O-linked N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) modification, and O-GlcNAcylation of tau has been shown to influence tau phosphorylation and aggregation. Inhibition of O-GlcNAcase (OGA), the enzyme that removes O-GlcNAc moieties, is a novel strategy [...]

July 1st, 2020|Tags: Alzheimer's, Merck, MK-8719, NFTs, OGA, Tau, Tg4510|

Discovery of MK-8719, A Potent O-GlcNAcase Inhibitor as a Potential Treatment for Tauopathies

Inhibition of O-GlcNAcase (OGA) has emerged as a promising therapeutic approach to treat tau pathology in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and progressive supranuclear palsy. Beginning with carbohydrate-based lead molecules, we pursued an optimization strategy of reducing polar surface area to align the desired drug-like properties of potency, selectivity, high central nervous system (CNS) [...]

September 10th, 2019|Tags: Alzheimer's, Merck, MK-8719, NFTs, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, Tau|

Discovery of [18F]-MK-6240: A Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Imaging Agent for Quantification of Neurofibrillary Tangles (NFTs)

Neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) made up of aggregated tau protein have been identified as the pathologic hallmark of several neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease. In vivo detection of NFTs using PET imaging represents a unique opportunity to develop a pharmacodynamic tool to accelerate discovery of new disease modifying therapeutics targeting tau pathology. Herein we present the [...]

April 18th, 2016|Tags: Alzheimer's, Merck, MK-6240, NFTs, Tau, Tau PET|

Alectos Announces Preclinical Results in TAPP Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s Disease

Oct 26, 2014 – Alectos today announced publication of preclinical studies showing that pharmacological inhibition of O-GlcNAcase (OGA) prevents cognitive decline and amyloid plaque formation in the TAPP mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. For details, see: Yuzwa, S.A. et al. Mol Neurodegener 9:42 (2014).

October 26th, 2014|Tags: Alzheimer's, Amyloid, NFTs, OGA, SFU, TAPP, Tau, Thiamet-G|

Pharmacological inhibition of O-GlcNAcase (OGA) prevents cognitive decline and amyloid plaque formation in bigenic tau/APP mutant mice

BACKGROUND: Amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) are the defining pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Increasing the quantity of the O-linked N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) post-translational modification of nuclear and cytoplasmic proteins slows neurodegeneration and blocks the formation of NFTs in a tauopathy mouse model. It remains unknown, however, if O-GlcNAc can influence the formation of [...]

October 26th, 2014|Tags: Alzheimer's, Amyloid, NFTs, OGA, SFU, TAPP, Tau, Thiamet-G|