Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disease that has as principal characteristic the loss of memory and cognitive abilities of the patient. Only in the USA, 13% of the people over 65 years old suffer from this disease, and these statistics increase to 40% of those over 85 years old. Worldwide, about 50 million people are suffering from dementia, including Alzheimer's disease. Unfortunately, by 2050, it is estimated that this number will double. There is no effective treatment for this illness; neither proper diagnostic tools for the early stages. Alzheimer's characteristics biomarkers are amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. A fresh approach to have an early diagnostic is to detect these biomarkers safely. For that reason, the use of images obtained by Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is an alternative. Our investigation presents the synthesis of copper (II) coordination compounds with acyclic tetradentate ligands that incorporate benzothiazole derivatives. These molecules, that are relatively flat, hydrophobic aromatic molecules can interact with and bind to the β-cross-sheet structure found in all amyloid fibrils. The copper compounds are prepared in three synthetic steps from commercially available reagents with good yields. These have been characterized with spectrometric and analytical techniques such as FT-IR, NMR, EA, and MS. The next step is to evaluate the success of the synthesis and isolation of these compounds with the radioisotope Copper-64 that is an element used in the Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging technique. The purpose of the Cu-64 compounds is that they can be used as detection agents for amyloid plaques in the brain and contribute to an early and effective diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.

Synthesis and characterization of Copper (II) complexes as potential imaging agents for Alzheimer's disease

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ACS Fall 2022

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