ALSP Inc. - aka American Life Science Pharmaceuticals Inc - is a privately held company developing small molecule drugs for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, initially focused on traumatic brain injury (TBI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The approach being taken by the firm's principals is to identify key enzymes in the brain -- called neuroproteases - producing biologically active peptides that are thought to cause the condition. Those enzymes become targets for screening compounds that inhibit the neuroproteases and thereby reduce production of the harmful peptides. Since Drs. Katz, von Euler and Axelrod were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1970 for their discoveries concerning the humoral transmitters in the nerve terminals and the mechanism for their storage, release and inactivation, the process of studying neurotransmitters and the enzymes that produce them have flourished. ALSP personnel are anchoring their efforts in this well-established process. A family of drugs has been identified to be highly effective in animal models of these conditions in reversing of these conditions the symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases: raumatic brain injury (TBI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The Principals of ALSP are advancing their lead compound into clinical trials and are continuing the search for additional drugs to treat traumatic brain injury (TBI) as well as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other devastating neurodegenerative diseases.
