Narrator: This is Science Today. A team of scientists at the University of California , Santa Barbara has discovered three molecules that may be used to develop new drugs for Alzheimer's disease. Ken Kosik, co-director of the campus' Neuroscience Research Institute, says they found three small molecules that can inhibit an enzyme that is a key perpetrator of Alzheimer's disease.

Kosik: They're not yet drugs or medications – they have a long way to go, but what makes the work interesting is that these three molecules point us in a direction that will probably show us how to design drugs that may actually someday work as a treatment for the disease.

Narrator: Kosik says this is an area of research that is sorely needed because medications available now for Alzheimer's disease are inadequate.

Kosik: They're not of zero value, they do provide some symptomatic benefit, but right now, this research and other research that's going on are actually looking for ways to actually modify the disease process. Not just to do something that's going to affect the symptoms.

Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.