A small-molecule therapeutic lead for Huntington's disease: preclinical pharmacology and efficacy of C2-8 in the R6/2 transgenic mouse

V Chopra, JH Fox, G Lieberman… - Proceedings of the …, 2007 - National Acad Sciences
V Chopra, JH Fox, G Lieberman, K Dorsey, W Matson, P Waldmeier, DE Housman…
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2007National Acad Sciences
Huntington's disease (HD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease caused by a
glutamine expansion within huntingtin protein. The exact pathological mechanisms
determining disease onset and progression remain unclear. However, aggregates of
insoluble mutant huntingtin (mhtt), a hallmark of HD, are readily detected within neurons in
HD brain. Although aggregated polyglutamines may not be inherently toxic, they constitute a
biomarker for mutant huntingtin useful for developing therapeutics. We previously reported …
Huntington's disease (HD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease caused by a glutamine expansion within huntingtin protein. The exact pathological mechanisms determining disease onset and progression remain unclear. However, aggregates of insoluble mutant huntingtin (mhtt), a hallmark of HD, are readily detected within neurons in HD brain. Although aggregated polyglutamines may not be inherently toxic, they constitute a biomarker for mutant huntingtin useful for developing therapeutics. We previously reported that the small molecule, C2-8, inhibits polyglutamine aggregation in cell culture and brain slices and rescues degeneration of photoreceptors in a Drosophila model of HD. In this study, we assessed the therapeutic potential of C2-8 in the R6/2 mouse model of HD, which has been used to provide proof-of-concept data in considering whether to advance therapies to human HD. We show that, at nontoxic doses, C2-8 penetrates the blood–brain barrier and is present in brain at a high concentration. C2-8-treated mice showed improved motor performance and reduced neuronal atrophy and had smaller huntingtin aggregates. There have been no prior drug-like, non-toxic, brain-penetrable aggregation inhibitors to arise from cell-based high-throughput screens for reducing huntingtin aggregation that is efficacious in preclinical in vivo models. C2-8 provides an essential tool to help elucidate mechanisms of neurodegeneration in HD and a therapeutic lead for further optimization and development.
National Acad Sciences