Understanding the delusional and demented brain.
Disease: Alzheimer’s
Medication: Tacrine
Outline:
Briefly introduce the disease (~0.5 page)
o State the current understanding of the disease
o Describe the primary symptoms of the disease
o Where is our current understanding of the disease lacking?
– Describe the medication you choose that treats the disease (2-3 pages).
o What effects does the drug have (i.e. what does it bind to, does it
increase/decrease/something else the activity)? Especially, what are
the main “targets” proteins that it interacts with?
o How do these “on target” effects help with the treatment of the
disease?
o What other proteins does the drug bind to? Does it activate/inhibit/other them?
o What are 2-3 potential side effects of the drug?
o For each side effect, is it because of the effect on the primary
“target” protein in another part of the brain/body or is it because of
“off-target” (effects on other proteins aside from the target)
o What other diseases does the drug treat? Is that because of
on-target or off-target effects (or a mix)?
o What factors contribute to making the drug more or less likely to
be effective for a patient?
o What isn’t known about how this drug works?
– Propose a follow-up experiment to extend what is known or to test an alternate interpretation
of the use of this medication (0.5-1 pages).
o What further studies need to be done to better understand how this medication works?
o Describe what the experimental design might look like
o What experimental techniques would you use?
o In what model system would this be tested in (humans, rodents, etc,) and why?
o What results would you expect to see?
((((This is only an outline that is due not a complete draft of the paper. You are welcome to use bullet points to outline what you plan to discuss in each of the sections of the paper.))))