chlorophyll-a and Amyotrophic-Lateral-Sclerosis

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are progressive neurodegenerative diseases that affect the neurons in the brain and the spinal cord. Neuroinflamation and apoptosis are key players in the progressive damage of the neurons in AD and ALS. Currently, there is no drug to offer complete cure for both these diseases. Riluzole is the only available drug that can prolong the life time of the ALS patients for nearly 3 months. Molecules that offer good HIT to the molecular targets of ALS will help to treat AD and ALS patients. P53 kinase receptor (4AT3), EphA4 (3CKH) and histone deacetylase (3SFF) are the promising disease targets of AD and ALS. This paper discusses on a new approach to combat neurodegenerative diseases using photosynthetic pigments. The docking studies were performed with the Autodock Vina algorithm to predict the binding of the natural pigments such as β carotene, chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, phycoerythrin and phycocyanin on these targets. The β carotene, phycoerythrin and phycocyanin had higher binding energies indicating the antagonistic activity to the disease targets. These pigments serve as a potential therapeutic molecule to treat neuroinflammation and apoptosis in the AD and ALS patients.

Topics: Alzheimer Disease; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis; beta Carotene; Chlorophyll; Chlorophyll A; Histone Deacetylases; Humans; Models, Molecular; Phycocyanin; Phycoerythrin; Protein Conformation; Receptor, EphA4