Bamboo overabundance alters forest structure and dynamics in the Atlantic Forest hotspot

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Anchor Areas to Improve Conservation and Increase Connectivity within the Brazilian "Mesopotamia of Biodiversity"

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Biodiversity conservation in human-modified Amazonian forest landscapes

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Application of MALDI-MS analysis of Rainforest chemodiversity: a keystone for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Natural products from Brazilian biodiversity as a source of new models for medicinal chemistry

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Tropical biodiversity: has it been a potential source of secondary metabolites useful for medicinal chemistry?

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

New anti-Alzheimer drugs from biodiversity: the role of the natural acetylcholinesterase inhibitors

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative pathology with severe economic and social impact. There is currently no cure, although cholinesterase inhibitors provide effective temporary relief of symptoms in some patients. Nowadays, drug research and development are based on the cholinergic hypothesis that supports the cognition improvement by regulation of the synthesis and release of acetylcholine in the brain. There are only four commercial medicines approved for treatment of AD, and natural products have played an important alternative role in the research for new acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, as exemplified through the discovery of galantamine. This profile conducts us to give in this paper an overview relating the several classes of natural products with anti-cholinesterasic activity as potential templates to the design of new selective and powerful anti-Alzheimer drugs.