The Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) and Italian biotechnology company Axxam SpA (Axxam) announced today that the ADDF has awarded a follow-on grant to Axxam to further develop small molecule drugs to treat Alzheimer's disease by targeting inflammation. This grant follows two previous awards from the ADDF to Axxam in 2011 and 2013.

The US $340,485 award will continue to fund a drug discovery project to identify compounds that selectively block the purinergic receptor, P2X7, involved in inflammation in the brain. Research under the previous grants identified a new class of promising P2X7-selective antagonists that are currently under full expansion as well as lead compounds suitable for in vivo assessment in pharmacological models.

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Source: http://www.prnewswire.com/