AIDD is an integrated tool and a radically new way to discovery new drugs for neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer’s, Epilepsy, Ageing, etc.). It allows pre-testing possible therapeutic applications, using in silico detailed models of neurons and neuronal networks, leading to a smoother clinical implementation of new and/or more specific drugs with unique therapeutic properties. The major objective of the AIDD’s computational approach is to provide the neuroscience community with a unique tool for drug discovery, to find a quantitative link between individual ion channel properties and mental diseases, integrating in silico biophysically detailed computational models with in vitro experiments, to accelerate the starting of the pre-clinical phase by cutting costs and time. The long-term vision is a research protocol that can greatly help the pharmaceutical industry in marketing new and more effective drugs, or better characterize the effects of already existing molecules, reducing animal experiments and the potential side effects of the drug.
AIDD is based on an innovative approach based on computational modeling and driven by experimental data. It allows to establish a quantitative link between the characteristics of ion channel expressed in the neurons’ membrane and mental diseases/disorders. Implemented as a multi-scale modeling approach, AIDD allows bridging the gaps between molecular-cellular, computational and clinical neuroscience, to study synaptic transmission and plasticity, modulation of channel properties, and the effects of neuromodulation on cognitive disorders. Currently, the development of a possible pharmacological agent requires a strenuous, long, and extremely expensive experimental and clinical investigation before its use can be considered. The proposed technology is a game changer in the field, because it allows a much faster and more efficient way to find drugs for the treatment of mental diseases and disorders, especially those involving hippocampus functions. This brain structure appears to be among the first to be affected by AD, epilepsies, schizophrenia and, more generally, cognitive problems with age. Preventing its functional decline is thus a crucial challenge.