Cationic Carbosilane Dendritic Systems as Promising Anti‐Amyloid Agents in Type 2 Diabetes

Abstract

The most common denominator of many of the neurodegenerative diseases is the badly folded protein accumulation resulting in the formation of insoluble protein deposits located in different parts of the organism, causing cell death and tissue degeneration. Dendritic systems have turned out to be a promising new therapeutic approach for the treatment of these diseases due to their ability to modulate the folding of these proteins. In this perspective, and focused on Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) characterized by the presence of deposits containing the amyloidogenic islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP), we present how different topologies of cationic carbosilane dendrimers inhibit the deposit formation in pancreatic islets isolated from Tg‐hIAPP mice. Also, the results obtained by the modification of dendritic carbosilane wedges with a chemical chaperone 4‐phenyl butyric acid (4‐PBA) at the focal point, confirmed their promising potential as anti‐amyloid agents with a concentration efficiency five orders of magnitude lower than that observed for the free 4‐PBA in their therapeutic action. Computational studies, that determine at the atomic level the main interaction between IAPP and dendrimers, supported the experimental work.