Medical Needs & Failures, Target Discovery
Volledige vakbeschrijving
The course covers broadly how research and development of new medicines is initiated for diseases of the nervous system. We will focus on three diseases that are each unique in terms of
their pathophysiology; 1) The neurodegenerative disorder, Alzheimer’s Disease (AD); 2) The neurological disorder, Multiple Sclerosis (MS) & repair mechanisms; and 3) Neuro-inflammation and the blood brain barrier in MS. The general set-up of the sessions is 1. To elaborate on the characteristics and etiology of a given disease; 2. What are the current treatment strategies and which mechanisms do they modulate; 3. What is the remaining unmet medical need and why did previous trials fail; and 4. Which are the upcoming therapeutic strategies in terms of preclinical leads and compounds currently in clinical trials.
In this course there is a special focus on neuroinflammation and the blood brain barrier.
Doelstellingen van dit vak
The ILO’s are:
- To understand the pathophysiology in AD, MS and PTSD; the strengths and weaknesses of current treatments; and the unmet medical need
- To understand the role of the central and peripheral nervous system to the pathophysiology of diseases of the nervous system such as AD, MS and PTSD
- To understand the principles of neuroinflammation and the underlying neuroimmunological mechanisms
- To understand the function of the blood-brain-barrier (BBB); how BBB penetration can be assessed, and methods for transporting molecules across the BBB
- To apply ILOs 1-4 in writing a paper on an existing drug target or clinical target retrievable in the literature, focusing on the neuroinflammation disease target
- R. Schreiber