Title:The Therapeutic Potential of Purinergic Receptors in Alzheimer’s Disease and Promising Therapeutic Modulators
Volume: 21
Issue: 11
Author(s): Lili Pan, Yu Ma, Yunchun Li, Haoxing Wu, Rui Huang, Zhengxin Cai and Xiaoai Wu*
Affiliation:
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, Laboratory of Clinical Nuclear Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan,China
Keywords:
Purinergic signaling, central nervous system disorders, Alzheimer’s disease, purinergic receptors, therapentic modulators,
neuro modulation.
Abstract: Recent studies have proven that the purinergic signaling pathway plays a key role in neurotransmission
and neuromodulation, and is involved in various neurodegenerative diseases and psychiatric
disorders. With the characterization of the subtypes of receptors in purinergic signaling, i.e. the
P1 (adenosine), P2X (ion channel) and P2Y (G protein-coupled), more attention has been paid to the
pathophysiology and therapeutic potential of purinergic signaling in the central nervous system disorders.
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive and deadly neurodegenerative disease that is characterized
by memory loss, cognitive impairment and dementia. However, as drug development aimed to
prevent or control AD has series of failures in recent years, more researchers have focused on the
neuroprotection-related mechanisms such as purinergic signaling in AD patients to find a potential
cure. This article reviews the recent discoveries of purinergic signaling in AD, and summarizes the
potential agents as modulators for the receptors of purinergic signaling in AD-related research and
treatments. Thus, our paper provides an insight into purinergic signaling in the development of anti-
AD therapies.
