ZS-07, a drug developed by Zensun that has been shown to improve cell metabolism and that is under investigation as a potential agent for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In a preclinical experimental animal model, animals treated with ZS-07 showed improvement in several pharmacological markers. This progress is a solid foundation for the successful development of this potential drug. Zensun will launch follow-up research, with the goal of achieving significant breakthroughs in therapeutic strategy and agents targeting energy metabolism.

About Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease, also called senile dementia, is a neurodegenerative disease that leads to death. This disease is characterized by memory loss, cognitive disorder, and mental and behavioral disorders. At present, there is no effective therapy or prevention for this disease. Many studies have shown that disorders of cellular metabolism are a foundation for the development of some chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome, etc. Dementia patients were found to have dysfunctions in metabolism of glucose, nucleic acid, protein, lipid, and other metabolic systems, and blood flow and oxygen consumption in their brains are lower than normal for their age-matched group. Elderly patients with glucose metabolism disorders in addition to diabetes have higher dementia morbidity than those that do not have diabetes. Considering these correlations, drugs that improve cellular metabolism may be feasible candidates for finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease.

According to the International Association of Alzheimer’s Disease annual report 2015, there are 44 million affected patients globally, and this number increases at the rate of 9.9 million per year and will increase to 135 million by 2050, and Alzheimer’s disease will become the biggest health challenge around the world. The epidemiology data from China indicates that the morbidity rate in people aged 65 or older is 4.8%, and the rate increases with advancing age, reaching 8.06% in people 75 or older, and 11.4% in people over 80 years of age