Neuroprotective compounds and methods of use

1. A method for curing, ameliorating, stabilizing, or mitigating a clinical condition associated with a neurodegenerative disease or locomotor dysfunction in a subject, said method comprising administering to the subject in need of such a treatment a therapeutically effective amount of a compound of the formula:

or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, or a combination of the compound thereof, thereby curing, ameliorating, stabilizing, or mitigating the clinical condition associated with locomotor dysfunction in said subject,

wherein

* denotes a chiral center;

R is hydrogen or alkyl;

R a is —CF 3 , —OR a1 , or —NR b1 R b2 ;

R a1 is H or alkyl;

each of R b1 and R b2 is independently H or alkyl;

R 1a is hydrogen, alkyl, or a nitrogen protecting group;

each of R 1 , R 2 and R 3 is independently hydrogen, alkyl, haloalkyl, halide, vinyl, alkynyl, —CHO, —C(═O)R 1b (ketone), —CO 2 R 1c (ester), —OR 1d , OSO 2 R 1e , aryl and heteroaryl, wherein each of R 1b , R 1c , R 1d and R 1e is independently alkyl or aryl;

R 2a is hydrogen, alkyl, haloalkyl, aryl, aralkyl, alkenyl, aralkenyl, cycloalkyl, heteroalkyl, heteroaryl or ester functional group;

R 2b is alkyl, cycloalkyl, aralkyl, alkenyl, aralkenyl, heteroalkyl, or heteroaryl; and

Z is a conjugated electron withdrawing group.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said neurodegenerative disease is selected from the group consisting of Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal dementia, a frontotemporal dementia caused by mutations in progranulin protein, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Huntington's chorea, Creutzfeld-Jacob disease, trinucleotide repeat diseases, cerebral degenerative diseases presenile dementia, senile dementia, Parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17 (FTDP-17), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), Huntington's disease (HD), Pick's disease, primary progressive aphasia, corticobasal dementia, Parkinson's disease, Parkinson's disease with dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, Down's syndrome, multiple system atrophy, spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), spinocerebellar ataxia, spinal degenerative disease/motor neuron degenerative diseases, Hallervorden-Spatz syndrome, cerebral infarct, cerebral trauma, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, transient ischemic attack, encephalopathy, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and any combination thereof.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said clinical condition comprises Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), frontotemporal degeneration (FTD), Alzheimer's Disease, encephalopathy, or traumatic brain injury (TBI).

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein said FTD comprises frontotemporal lobar degeneration with ubiquitinated inclusions.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein said method comprises ameliorating a symptom associated with ALS.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising administering a therapy that relieves a symptom associated with ALS.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising administering a compound that decreases release of glutamate to the subject.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein said compound that decreases the release of glutamate comprises riluzole.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising administering to said subject a compound selected from the group consisting of baclofen, trihexyphenidyl hydrochloride, morphine sulfate, lorazepam, glycopyrrolate, benztropine mesylate, gabapentin, diazepam, tizanidine, phenytoin sodium, amitriptyline hydrochloride, ropinirole, Atropine sulphate, fluvoxamine maleate, dantrolene sodium, morphine sulfate, dexpramipexole, and a combination of two or more compounds thereof.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein said method comprises administering to the subject a therapeutically effective amount of a compound of the formula:

or a combination of the compound thereof.

11. A method for reducing TDP-43 toxicity in a subject, said method comprising the step of administering to the subject a therapeutically effective amount of at least one compound selected from the group consisting of:

or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, thereby reducing TDP-43 toxicity in said subject,

wherein

* denotes a chiral center;

R is hydrogen or alkyl;

R a is —CF 3 , —OR a1 , or —NR b1 R b2 ;

R a1 is H or alkyl;

each of R b1 and R b2 is independently H or alkyl;

X is —NR 1a —, wherein R 1a is hydrogen, alkyl or a nitrogen protecting group;

each of R 1 , R 2 and R 3 is independently hydrogen, alkyl, haloalkyl, halide, vinyl, alkynyl, —CHO, —C(═O)R 1b (ketone), —CO 2 R 1c (ester), —OR 1d , OSO 2 R 1e , aryl and heteroaryl, wherein each of R 1b , R 1c , R 1d and R 1e is independently alkyl or aryl;

R 2a is hydrogen, alkyl, haloalkyl, aryl, aralkyl, alkenyl, aralkenyl, cycloalkyl, heteroalkyl, heteroaryl or ester functional group;

R 2b is alkyl, cycloalkyl, aralkyl, alkenyl, aralkenyl, heteroalkyl, or heteroaryl; and

Z is a conjugated electron withdrawing group.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein TDP-43 expression is not affected.