Targeting apoptotic pathways for ALS, Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease

The proposed work follows our recent discovery that targeting a class of voltage-dependent potassium channels inhibits death of motor neurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from patients with ALS. These experiments were motivated by single cell RNA-expression data showing altered expression of a channel regulatory subunit in ALS motor neurons compared to their isogenic controls. This discovery serendipitously converged with an ongoing project developing small molecule modulators of these channels as investigational tools. We have now found that one of these compounds mitigates cell death of ALS patient iPSC-derived motor neurons. We therefore propose to test its ability to delay disease progression in a mouse model of ALS, to develop more potent inhibitors with drug-like properties, and to test the efficacy of these modulators in animal models of Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease as a new treatment paradigm for preventing neurodegeneration by inhibiting apoptosis.