| abstract |
The present invention relates to methods, kits, combinations, and compositions for treating, preventing or reducing the risk of developing a disorder or disease related to, or the symptoms associated with, neurotoxicity in a subject, particularly to beta-amyloid-induced neurotoxicity and Alzheimer's disease. The compounds of the present invention are biologically active 22R-hydroxycholesterol derivatives containing a common spirost-5-en-3-ol structure. The invention further provides a method for treating a patient having a neurological disease or disorder such as global and focal ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke, head trauma, spinal cord injury, hypoxia-induced nerve cell damage, nerve cell damage caused by cardiac arrest or neonatal distress, epilepsy, anxiety, diabetes mellitus, multiple sclerosis, phantom limb pain, causalgia, neuralgias, herpes zoster, spinal cord lesions, hyper algesia, allodynia, Huntington's disease, and Parkinson's disease, by administering to the patient a therapeutically effective amount of 22R-hydroxycholesterol or a therapeutically active analog thereof. |