Pharmacological treatment for Alzheimer's disease: current approaches and future strategies

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Pharmacology
• Gerontology

Background:

• Despite over a decade since the first acetylcholine esterase inhibitor approval, no Alzheimer's disease (AD) treatment can halt or reverse its progression.
• Current therapeutic strategies primarily focus on the amyloid hypothesis, including gamma-secretase inhibitors, amyloid aggregation inhibitors, and immunotherapy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review current treatments and emerging therapeutic strategies for Alzheimer's disease (AD).
• To explore novel mechanisms and combination therapies for AD management.

Main Methods:

• Review of clinical trials targeting amyloid pathways.
• Examination of emerging therapies including tau-targeting agents, mitochondrial enhancers, and neurotrophic factors.
• Analysis of combination therapy approaches for AD.

Main Results:

• Numerous clinical trials have investigated amyloid-targeting therapies with varying success.
• Emerging strategies focus on tau pathology, mitochondrial function, and neuroprotection.
• Combination therapies integrating symptomatic and disease-modifying treatments are under investigation.

Conclusions:

• No single therapy currently stops or reverses Alzheimer's disease (AD) progression.
• Combination therapies comprising symptomatic and disease-modifying treatments are proposed as future standard regimens for enhanced efficacy in AD management.