[What are the prospects for pharmacological treatment of prion disease?]

Abstract

There is currently no effective therapy available for Creutz-feldt-Jakob disease. However, a limited number of drugs such as polyanions, the amyloid-binding dye Congo red, amphotericin B anthracyclines, dapsone, beta sheet breaker peptides, porphyrines and phtalocyanines have been found to delay the appearance of the clinical signs in experimental prion diseases. Today, the most promising agent would appear to be a less toxic derivative of amphotericin B, MS-8209. Indeed this compound has a wide spectrum of anti-prion activity and is the only molecule capable of prolonging survival time when treatment is performed in the late stages of infection. This result represents an important step forward in therapeutical approaches of prion diseases and justifies the development of new polyene antibiotic derivatives.