MitoTARGET4AD - Improving Nature for a Novel Disruptive Treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease

The most common neurodegenerative disease is Alzheimer's (AD), an irreversible, complex, and progressive neurological disease that cause memory decline and gradually leads to dementia and death. Current treatments are only palliative and fail to modify the disease progression. Thus, there is a pressing need for disease-modifying drugs (DMDs). The AD neurodegenerative process relies on neuroinflammation, synaptic and cell loss, and accumulation of aggregating pathological proteins (Amyloid-beta (Aβ) and Tau), among others. Massive oxidative stress sustains the neurodegenerative toxicity and accumulation of Aβ and Tau. Therefore, the use of effective mitochondriotropic antioxidants can operate as a novel therapeutic strategy. This bilateral cooperation will allow to acquire pre-clinical data to validate novel mitochondria-targeted antioxidants (MTAs) as potential DMDs. The project will combine the expertise of the Portuguese and French teams, both specialists in drug discovery and AD.