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Discipline of Pharmacology
Frome Road
Level 5, Medical School North Building
The University of Adelaide
SA 5005
AUSTRALIA
Email

Telephone: +61 8 8303 5571
Facsimile: +61 8 8224 0685

Receptor Pharmacology

Oxidative Stress and Alzheimer's disease

Dementia is the fifth largest cause of death in Australians aged over 65, and Alzheimer's disease (AD) accounts for at least half of all cases of dementia in this age group. AD is also a major cause of disability in the elderly population, and AD incidence rises exponentially with age. Thus therapeutic interventions that prevent, ameliorate or slow the progression of AD are highly desirable. However, current therapies are of limited success and therapies based on the disease process underlying AD are urgently needed.

Oxidative stress plays a key role in the development of Alzheimer's disease. Two drugs currently used to treat high blood pressure, hydralazine and dihydralazine, provide profound protection of liver cells against toxic products formed by oxidative stress. Imidazoline receptor ligands may also protect against oxidative stress. We have evidence that these drugs may also protect nerve cells against oxidative stress, and the focus of this research is to determine how well, and by what mechanism, these drugs act. These drugs may provide the basis of new therapeutic treatments of Alzheimer's disease.