Proteases are involved in different neurodegenerative and neuromuscular
disorders. The role of protease inhibitors as therapeutic agents has been the matter of
intense research.
Given the role of proteases in these diseases, it is appealing to develop a single agent as
a “magic bullet” that would target all the disease states. Calpain inhibitors have been
tested with success in animal models of human diseases.
In this review, we summarize the role of calpain in selected neurodegenerative and
neuromuscular diseases. We describe the various instances in which calpain has been
implicated and discuss the results of calpain inhibition in each disease entity as well as
how targeted calpain inhibition could be beneficial. The focus of this review is to
highlight the potential role of targeted inhibition as a therapeutic option and to
introduce three newer calpain inhibitors with unique characteristics.
Keywords: Calcium, Calpain, Calpain inhibitors, CNS, Cyclin-dependent kinase,
Excitotoxicity, Muscular dystrophy, Neurodegeneration, Targeted-calpain
inhibition.
