The hope that in the future there will be therapeutic agents for better treatment of diseases of the central nervous system, such as Alzheimer’s disease and malignant brain tumors, is sent by a group of scientists from the Democritos Research Center. “Our goal has always been to create new diagnostic products based on technetium for the diagnosis of serious diseases,” Dr. Maria Pelekanu reports “K”.Democritus researcher since 1993. After more than fifteen years of research, researchers from the Institute of Biological Sciences and Applications, M. Pelekan, M. Sanyu and B. Mavroidiand the Institute of Nuclear and Radiological Sciences and Technology, Energy and Security, M. Papadopoulos, I. Pirmettis and A. Seganiscame up with some encouraging results.

“We were looking for a suitable chemical for technetium, which is the most widely used radioisotope in nuclear medicine, and which would have a high permeability of the blood-brain barrier,” Dr. Minas Papadopoulos describes in “K”.. These searches also used the stable metal rhenium, which yields the same chemical compounds.

With regard to Alzheimer’s disease, a neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system for which neither a cure nor adequate answers to its generative causes have yet been found, Greek researchers have set a twofold goal: on the one hand, for a new compound to enter the brain to give an accurate and timely representation of the damage, on the one hand, to somehow contribute to the treatment. The chemical compound, which the team created and used in lab tests on lab animals, has been shown to successfully cross the blood-brain barrier, a natural “barrier” that makes it difficult for drugs to reach the brain. “The first good news is that the new compound penetrates 8% of this barrier and reaches the amyloid plaques characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease,” says Dr. Papadopoulos, “so we can get a realistic picture of the problem.”

However, new chemical compounds have shown even greater potential for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. “In experiments with mouse models of the disease, it was found that there was a decrease in amyloid plaques, as well as levels of beta-amyloid peptide, which is the main component of amyloid plaques,” explains Dr. Pelecanu. “These results are impressive and extremely rare in the field of Alzheimer’s disease.”

They created a chemical compound that crosses the blood-brain barrier, a natural “barrier” that makes it difficult for drugs to reach the brain.

brain tumors

The high permeability of the blood-brain barrier creates prospects for the use of new chemical compounds in brain tumors. “Imaging methods for diagnosing cancer are very complex right now, so we’ve focused on using the drug in treatment.” The group targets glioblastoma, a solid primary tumor that is treated with either surgery or minimal chemotherapy, and metastatic tumors caused by, for example, breast or ovarian cancer. “We found that the compounds killed a higher percentage of cancer cells compared to chemotherapy.” says Dr. Pelekan “K”.. In particular, the activity of new compounds is 10–50 times higher in glioblastoma and 20–400 times higher in metastatic tumors. “At the same time, our method significantly interferes with the cell cycle and increases the production of free radicals,” useful properties in the fight against cancer.

Patent Application

“Our tests are at the preclinical level, we have published our first results since 2019,” notes Dr. Papadopoulos. At the same time, the group began patent procedures. The application has already been approved in Europe, while it is pending in the US, China and India. “In order for trials to move into the clinical stage, an organization with the appropriate infrastructure must show interest and find appropriate funding,” concludes Dr. Pelecanu, “we hope to achieve this.” Dr. Pelecanu hopes that the results of their research will lead to the creation of new drugs for the central nervous system.