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A Close Look at BACE1 Inhibitors for Alzheimer’s Disease Treatment

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Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common cause of age-dependent dementia, is one of the most significant healthcare problems worldwide. Aggravating this situation, drugs that are currently US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved for AD treatment do not prevent or delay disease progression. Therefore, developing effective therapies for AD patients is of critical urgency. Human genetic and clinical studies over the past three decades have indicated that abnormal generation or accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides is a likely culprit in AD pathogenesis. Aβ is generated from amyloid precursor protein (APP) via proteolytic cleavage by β-site APP cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE1) (memapsin 2, β-secretase, Asp 2 protease) and γ-secretase. Mice deficient in BACE1 show abrogated production of Aβ. Therefore, pharmacological inhibition of BACE1 is being intensively pursued as a therapeutic approach to treat AD patients. Recent setbacks in clinical trials with BACE1 inhibitors have highlighted the critical importance of understanding how to properly inhibit BACE1 to treat AD patients. This review summarizes the recent studies on the role of BACE1 in synaptic functions as well as our views on BACE1 inhibition as an effective AD treatment.

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Acknowledgements

Due to space limitations, not all BACE1 inhibitor trials are cited, but many of these studies are discussed in reviews cited in this article.

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  1. Department of Neuroscience, Room E4032, UConn Health, 263 Farmington Avenue, Farmington, CT, 06030-3401, USA

    Brati Das & Riqiang Yan

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  1. Brati Das
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Both B. Das and R. Yan wrote this review.

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Correspondence to Riqiang Yan.

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No funding was received for the review. R. Yan is supported by grants (MH103942, RF1AG058261, AG025493, NS074256, and AG046929) from the National Institutes of Health.

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RY and BD declare no conflicts of interest or competing interests relevant to this review.

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Das, B., Yan, R. A Close Look at BACE1 Inhibitors for Alzheimer’s Disease Treatment. CNS Drugs 33, 251–263 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40263-019-00613-7

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