Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is currently the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, and the number of patients affected by AD is only expected to increase as average life expectancy continues to grow. Although there has been a great deal of research focused on understanding the neurochemistry and neuropathology of Alzheimer’s Disease, the underlying biochemical mechanism of neurodegeneration remains elusive and misunderstood. In an effort to better understand this mechanism, the role of copper binding to amyloid peptide in AD has been investigated by studying electron transfer properties, reactivities, and peptide aggregation in solution. The relative efficiencies of electron transfers in different copper complexes were investigated using cyclic voltammetry and the relative reactivities were studied by monitoring changes in the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) over time using different conditions. Overall, the data shows that altering electron transfer can have a positive effect on inhibiting the production of neurotoxic reactive oxygen species. Additional ligands will be discussed and initial results for in vivo will be presented.

Investigating electron transfer properties between copper complexes for potential Alzheimer’s therapeutics

ACS Fall 2021

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