Drug – bio-affecting and body treating compositions – Designated organic active ingredient containing – Heterocyclic carbon compounds containing a hetero ring...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-10
2001-10-23
Criares, Theodore J. (Department: 1617)
Drug, bio-affecting and body treating compositions
Designated organic active ingredient containing
Heterocyclic carbon compounds containing a hetero ring...
C514S252120, C514S371000, C514S461000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06306857
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to substituted 1-aryl-3-piperazin-1′-yl propanones and 1-aryl-3-piperidin-1′-yl propanones. These compounds are useful in the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease, neoplastic disease, and bacterial or fungal infections.
2. Description of the Related Art
Alzheimer's Disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder affecting 7% of the population over 65 years of age and characterized clinically by progressive loss of intellectual function. This impairment of function is caused by the presence of neuritic plaques in the neocortex and the loss of presynaptic markers of cholinergic neurons. Neuritic plaques are composed of degenerating axons and nerve terminals, often surrounding an amyloid core and usually containing reactive glial elements. Another characteristic pathologic feature of Alzheimer's Disease is the neurofibrillary tangle, which is an intraneuronal mass which corresponds to an accumulation of abnormally phosphorylated tau protein polymerized into fibrillar structures termed paired helical filaments. In addition, the neurofibrillary tangle also contains highly phosphorylated neurofilament proteins. Even the earliest papers on Alzheimer's Disease were clear that both “senile” plaques and neurofibrillary tangles had to be present in abundance to allow a post-mortem diagnosis of the disease. Before any understanding of the molecular nature of these structures was obtained, efforts were being made to understand the relationship between the numbers of these lesions and the progression or severity of the dementia experienced by the patient. The limitations of silver staining were such that early workers in this field were unable to appreciate the complexity of these abnormal structures (Ball, M J, Neurobiol. of Aging, 8: 564-565, 1987). Although early attempts to correlate pathologic lesion counts with clinical symptoms generally yielded poor results, it was clear that the incidence of large numbers of both type lesions were invariably associated with dementia (Perry et al, J. Neural Transmission, 24: 131-136, 1987; Alafuzoff, I., Acta Neuropath, 74: 209-225, 1987; Whitehouse et al, Prog. Clin. Biol. Res., 317: 131-142, 1989; Tomlinson, Neuropathol. Appl. Neurobiol, 15: 491-512, 1989).
More recent work has allowed a clearer definition of the nature of the lesions stained by silver salts. “Senile” plaques are actually two distinct types of structures, the classical plaques described by Alzheimer being composed of degenerating neuronal elements (neurites) surrounding a central core of amyloid, while the other so-called “diffuse” or “primitive” plaque is usually a deposit of amyloid without a halo of degenerating neurites (Tagliavini, et al, Neurosci. Lett., 93, 191-196, 1988; Dickson, D W, et al, Am. J. Path., 132, 86-101, 1988). These structures are difficult to distinguish from each other with silver stains or with the widely used fluorescent dye, thioflavin S. Early attempts, using silver staining, at correlations between plaque number and extent of dementia, as well as some more recent studies using thioflavin S, were flawed by this inability to define what type of plaque was being counted (Hansen, L A, et al, Neurology, 38, 48-54, 1988; Katzman, R, et al, Ann. Neurol., 23, 138-144, 1988). This becomes very obvious in recent studies, which have consistently reported that amyloid plaques can be found in large numbers in the brains of the majority of the very elderly (over 80 years), and are only rarely associated with dementia when present without evidence of degenerating neurites (Davies, L, et al, Neurology, 38, 1688-1693, 1988; Delaere, P, et al, Neurosci. Lett., 116, 87-93, 1990; Dickson, D W, et al, Neurobiol. Aging, 13, 179-189, 1991).
The counting of neurofibrillary tangles also fails to give an accurate picture of the extent of neurofibrillary degeneration. Again, the presence of large numbers of tangles is invariably associated with a profound dementia, and some index of disease severity can be gained from tangle counts (Tomlinson, B E, Neuropathol. Appl. Neurobiol., 15, 491-512, 1989; Delaere, P, et al, Acta Neuropath., 77, 645-653, 1989). Electron microscopy first revealed that tangles were composed of masses of paired helical filaments (PHF) filling the cytoplasm of neurons (Terry, R D, et al, pages 145-155, In CIBA Foundation Symposium on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Conditions. Ed. by Wolstenholme, GEW, O'Conner, M, J and A Churchill, London, 1970). These studies also clearly showed that degenerating neurites also contained PHF, a fact only widely appreciated much later, when the use of antibodies to PHF became common (Wolozin, B L, et al, Science, 232, 648-650, 1986). Thus, both the plaques and the tangles of Alzheimer's Disease contain PHF. The use of antibodies to PHF also revealed the widespread presence of these paired helical filaments in neuronal processes (Brun, A, Prog. Clin. Biol. Res., 317, 285-293, 1989). Thus, the presence of PHF is much more widespread than was first suspected, and is today considered to be an indication of a widespread neuronal disease, of which the neuritic plaque and the neurofibrillary tangle are only the most obvious signs (McKee, A C, et al, Ann. Neurol., 30, 156-165, 1991). It has been estimated that as much as 90% of the PHF in the cortex of the average Alzheimer case is present in neuronal processes rather than in the plaque or tangle (Wolozin, B L, Ann. Neurol., 22, 521-526, 1987). Much of the early and indeed the present confusion with regard to diagnosis and severity of Alzheimer's Disease comes from the failure to appreciate the complexity of the pathology in this disease, although the occurrence of significant amounts of PHF in the brain is always associated with severe dementia (Hyman, B T, Current Opinions in Neurology and Neurosurgery, 5, 88-93, 1992). These results suggest that good correlations can be obtained between the concentration of PHF proteins (sometimes referred to as Alzheimer's Disease Associated Proteins or ADAP) in the cerebral cortex and the degree of dementia measured prior to the death of the patient (Ghanbari, H A, et al, JAMA, 263, 2907-2910, 1990).
It is noted that the terminology used to describe the abnormal protein complexes composing the fibrillar pathology in Alzheimer's Disease can be confusing. PHF is a morphological designation, describing abnormal filaments found in neurofibrillary tangles. An abnormal protein species migrating at 68 kDa, electrophoretically, and observed on immunoblots of tissue from AD brains was termed A68 (Wolozin, B, et al, Science, 232, 648-650, 1986). A protein complex shown to be specific for AD by immunochemical analyses was designated Alzheimer's Disease Associated Protein or by the acronym, ADAP (Ghanbari, H A, et al, JAMA, 263, 2907-2910, 1990). It is now known that A68 and ADAP, when viewed by the electron microscope, are PHFs. These PHFs have been further shown to contain, primarily, the microtubule-associated protein. tau. Hence, the terms A68, ADAP, PHF and PHF-tau are often used interchangeably. Thus, they are meant to be interchangable herein.
A series of important studies have suggested that the progression of Alzheimer's Disease can be defined pathologically by careful neuroanatomic studies of large numbers of brains from elderly humans, (Braak, H, et al, Neurosci. Lett., 103, 24-28, 1989; Braak, H, et al, Neuropath. and Applied Neurobiol., 15, 13-26, 1989; Braak, H, et al, Acta Neuropath., 82, 239-259, 1991; Braak, H, et al, European Neurology, 33, 403-408, 1993). The Braak's focus is almost entirely on the development of neurofibrillary pathology, which begins in the entorhinal cortex perhaps years before the clinical signs of the disease are apparent. The progression of Alzheimer's Disease is thought to be somewhat unusual, in the sense that the disease progresses by the involvement of more and more neurons in the formation of PHF, in an anatomic sequence which is to some extent predic
DeBernardis John Francis
Kerkman Daniel Joseph
Zinkowski Raymond Paul
Criares Theodore J.
McDonnell & Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff
Molecular Geriatrics Corporation
Sarussi Steven J.
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