Emerging Promise of Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors in Neurological Disease Treatment: Charbel Moussa, MBBS, PhD

WATCH TIME: 7 minutes

“Tyrosine kinase inhibitors act like a ‘double-edged sword’, lowering inflammation while promoting autophagy, effectively clearing toxic proteins from the brain.”

New therapies in development aim to delay the onset or progression of specific dementias, promising better outcomes for patients. These innovative treatments are being designed to alleviate symptoms and address the root causes of the disease, potentially slowing or even stopping its progression. Therefore, clinicians may need to stay updated on these evolving therapeutics, understand their mechanisms, potential benefits, and limitations. This knowledge is important to offer optimal care and guidance to patients, ensuring they are informed about all available care options.

Charbel Moussa, MBBS, PhD, associate professor of neurology at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC), presented on disease-modifying treatments in dementias in a talk at the 3rd Annual Advanced Therapeutics in Movement and Related Disorders (ATMRD) Congress, held by the PMD Alliance from June 22-25, 2024. In his presentation, he shared his clinical insights on how clinicians can recognize presenting symptoms, etiology, diagnostic workup, and treatment options, specifically disease-modifying therapies that are currently available or in the pipeline for the treatment of memory disorders.

Moussa, who also serves as the director of the GUMC Translational Neurotherapeutics Program and the Laboratory for Dementia and Parkinsonism, sat down with NeurologyLive^® at the meeting in an interview to discuss how tyrosine kinase inhibitors balance the dual effects of reducing inflammation and promoting autophagy in the brain. He also spoke about specific neurodegenerative diseases that could potentially benefit from the development of tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Moreover, Moussa talked about how mast cells and microglia interact in the context of brain inflammation and immune response.

Click here for more coverage of ATMRD 2024.