Testing for a Better Alzheimer’s Disease Drug through Reinventing Aricept
Session Number
Project ID: MEDH 11
Advisor(s)
Dr. John Thurmond; Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Discipline
Medical and Health Sciences
Start Date
22-4-2020 9:45 AM
End Date
22-4-2020 10:00 AM
Abstract
The pharmaceutical drug “Aricept” (Dopenzil) is used to treat symptoms, specifically confusion and dementia, in patients that have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Despite abundant research, there is no cure for the disease, but only treatment and remedies for the symptoms, despite the fact that the disease affected 5.8 million Americans as of 2019, and is the 6th leading cause of death in the United States. Because of Aricept’s prominence in the Alzheimer’s drug industry, our group decided to attempt to improve the efficiency of the drug in the aspects of estimated binding affinity, Lipinski’s rule of 5, pharmacokinetics, and lipophilicity by making edits to the Donepezil molecule. We also checked for (PAINS?) and made sure the new molecule would go to the brain via the BOILED egg test. Tests were performed using the Computer-Aided drug design programs Molinspiration, SeeSAR, and SwissADME. After months of drug editing, we made (about 300?) different versions of the molecule, with multiple different orientations in space for most of them. More importantly, we were able to create a molecule that was, essentially, an improved version of the Donepezil molecule. (NOTE: Everything with a question mark is subject to change.)
Testing for a Better Alzheimer’s Disease Drug through Reinventing Aricept
The pharmaceutical drug “Aricept” (Dopenzil) is used to treat symptoms, specifically confusion and dementia, in patients that have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Despite abundant research, there is no cure for the disease, but only treatment and remedies for the symptoms, despite the fact that the disease affected 5.8 million Americans as of 2019, and is the 6th leading cause of death in the United States. Because of Aricept’s prominence in the Alzheimer’s drug industry, our group decided to attempt to improve the efficiency of the drug in the aspects of estimated binding affinity, Lipinski’s rule of 5, pharmacokinetics, and lipophilicity by making edits to the Donepezil molecule. We also checked for (PAINS?) and made sure the new molecule would go to the brain via the BOILED egg test. Tests were performed using the Computer-Aided drug design programs Molinspiration, SeeSAR, and SwissADME. After months of drug editing, we made (about 300?) different versions of the molecule, with multiple different orientations in space for most of them. More importantly, we were able to create a molecule that was, essentially, an improved version of the Donepezil molecule. (NOTE: Everything with a question mark is subject to change.)