Estudo do mecanismo de ação das moléculas agonistas e antagonistas para o tratamento do mal de Alzheimer e da depressão

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a degenerative and progressive type of dementia of great social concern. The latest worldwide estimate shows that 45 million people have some form of dementia, among these 25 million have symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. The lifestyle imposed by social and economic conditions and changes in emotional state caused by trauma and disease have contributed to the increase in cases of people where changes in behavioral state (depressive states: DS) are observed. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 20% of the world population suffers physiologically with changes in its emotional state resulting in depressive states. The AD and DS specific causes and the mechanisms that trigger these changes in the neurological status of patients are not known, thus treatment strategies are employed to try to minimize the effect, or bring improvement in the state of patient life. The most common strategies used to treat patients with AD and DS are related to use drugs that act at the synapses so as to inhibit the function of enzymes responsible for the activation and deactivation of the neurotransmitters directly involved in the processes that cause dementia and the depression. The most used strategy to treat patients with AD is the cholinergic therapy, which consists in use drugs with inhibitory effects against acetylcholinesterase (AChE), in order to prevent the decrease of the concentration of acetylcholine (the neuroreceptor) in the synaptic region. Tacrine, donepezil, galanthamine and rivastigmine are drugs approved for treatment of AD and are classified as inhibitors of acetylcholinesterase. Other drugs such as metrifonate, dichlorvos, huperzine, phenserine and the tacrine dimmer are in stages of clinical testing. The classical treatment of depression is done with the use of drugs that promote the increase of serotonin in the synaptic cleft, either inhibiting the action of the enzymes monoamine oxidase A and monoamine oxidase B, that degrades the neurotransmitter, or by selective inhibition of the reuptake of this neurotransmitter by specific receptors to such function. The drug moclobemide, isocarboxazid, iproniazid, tranylcypromine, phenelzine, have been widely used in the treatment of DS. Nevertheless, its severe side effect classifies as restricted to use, only if other drugs are not effective. The second generation drugs that inhibit monoamine oxidase isoforms Clorgyline, Nialamide selegiline and rasagiline were developed to help the treatment of depression. In an attempt to produce a multitarget drug, ladostigil a hybrid drug was proposed as a potent inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase and monoamine oxidase B. In this work several quantum theoretical approach were undertaken in order to elucidate the pharmacophore profile of known drugs used in the treatment of AD and DS. For this purpose calculations in vacuum and solvated medium at the semi-empirical and ab initio level were performed for determination of structural, electronic and spatial parameters of enzyme inhibitors. Another...