Student Presenter(s): Fawaz Syed
Faculty Mentor: Jole Fiorito
Department: Biological and Chemical Sciences
School/College: College of Arts and Sciences, Long Island

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the 7th leading cause of death in the United States according to the NIH and is characterized by the progressive deterioration of cognitive performance. It does not currently have a cure, and treatments aim only to mitigate the symptoms of mild AD. The disease proceeds through the accumulation of improperly processed amyloid ß peptides into plaques and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles of tau proteins. AD is a multifactorial neurodegenerative disorder with several target proteins contributing to its etiology. Potential therapeutic strategies to combat AD include the inhibition of phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) and the modulation of histone acetyltransferase, among others. Current drug therapies rely on the administration of a single drug that acts on one specific molecular target or a combination of drugs acting on different targets. In this research study, we propose the development of a multi-target-directed ligand (MTDL), wherein one drug molecule interacts with multiple targets involved in the disease. To investigate this therapeutic approach, we designed a small library of quinoline derivatives as potential MTDL candidate molecules with biological activity on both PDE5 and HAT enzymes. Thus far, one molecule has been successfully synthesized. Upon finalization of the molecule library, each candidate will be tested via PDE5 and HAT assays to determine their effect on enzymatic function.