There is a continuing unmet medical need to develop neuroprotective strategies to treat neurodegenerative disorders. To address this need, we screened over 2000 compounds for potential neuroprotective activity in a model of oxidative stress and found that numerous antifungal agents were neuroprotective. Of the identified compounds, fluconazole was further characterized. Fluconazole was able to prevent neurite retraction and cell death in in vitro and in vivo models of toxicity. Fluconazole protected neurons in a concentration-dependent manner and exhibited efficacy against several toxic agents, including 3-nitropropionic acid, N-methyl D-aspartate, 6-hydroxydopamine, and the HIV proteins Tat and gp120. In vivo studies indicated that systemically administered fluconazole was neuroprotective in animals treated with 3-nitropropionic acid and prevented gp120-mediated neuronal loss. In addition to neuroprotection, fluconazole also induced proliferation of neural progenitor cells in vitro and in vivo. Fluconazole mediates these effects through upregulation and signaling via the insulin growth factor-1 receptor which results in decreased cAMP production and increased phosphorylation of Akt. Blockade of the insulin growth factor-1 receptor signaling with the selective inhibitor AG1024 abrogated the effects of fluconazole. Our studies suggest that fluconazole may be an attractive candidate for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases due to its protective properties against several categories of neuronal insults and its ability to spur neural progenitor cell proliferation.
Keywords: Fluconazole; Insulin growth factor-1 receptor; Neurodegeneration; Neuroprotection; Neurotherapeutics.
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