Targeting dementias through cancer kinases inhibition
Francesca Fagiani, Cristina Lanni, Marco Racchi, Stefano Govoni
Abstract
The failures in Alzheimer's disease (AD) therapy strongly suggest the importance of reconsidering the research strategies analyzing other mechanisms that may take place in AD as well as, in general, in other neurodegenerative dementias. Taking into account that in AD a variety of defects result in neurotransmitter activity and signaling efficiency imbalance, neuronal cell degeneration and defects in damage/repair systems, aberrant and abortive cell cycle, glial dysfunction, and neuroinflammation, a target may be represented by the intracellular signaling machinery provided by the kinome. In particular, based on the observations of a relationship between cancer and AD, we focused on cancer kinases for targeting neurodegeneration, highlighting the importance of targeting the intracellular pathways at the intersection between cell metabolism control/duplication, the inhibition of which may stop a progression in neurodegeneration.