Research News
Posted 17 February 2009
Alzheimer’s Research Project wins Poster Competition at AIT
Postgraduate researcher, Catrina O’Donohoe, is investigating a series of drug-like substances that may have the ability to inhibit an enzyme that is found in high concentration in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients.
This work complements many of the drugs currently used to treat patients with the disease. As part of this research, over 200 inhibitors have been synthesised and tested to date. The inhibitors are based on isosorbide and all are novel compounds. The structures of the compounds have first to be studied and then their ability to inhibit the enzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) is then examined.
Currently the most potent inhibitors generated from the research are being tested using animal models, with simulated brain lesions similar to those found in the brain of Alzheimer’s patients.
Ms O’Donohoe’s research, “Investigations into highly potent inhibitors of human butyrylcholinesterase”, is funded under the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Research Frontiers Grant Scheme and is conducted in partnership between the Department of Life and Physical Science, AIT, with the School of Pharmacy, Trinity College Dublin (TCD).
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, which is the loss of cognitive ability. It is a progressive and fatal brain disease that causes brain shrinkage. Experts estimate that 26 million people suffered from the disease worldwide last year.
Catrina O’Donohoe is originally from Coosan, Athlone. She attended Alexandra College in Milltown, Co. Dublin and studied for her primary degree in chemistry in TCD. She worked for a number of years in pharmaceutical companies including Wyeth in Newbridge, before returning to her studies in AIT, enrolling on the MSc/Postgraduate Diploma in Toxicology in 2005. In 2006, she registered for an SFI-funded MSc by research under the supervision of Dr Seán Reidy. This is the second research project that Dr Reidy has supervised in this area.
