[Alzheimer's disease - State of the art, and emerging diagnostics and therapeutics]

Alzheimer's disease - State of the art, and emerging diagnostics and therapeutics Abstract. Alzheimer's disease (AD) constitutes the most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder, and the most frequent cause of dementia. Current diagnostics include a clinical examination, brain imaging, as well as laboratory testing in order to exclude other treatable disorders. Depending on the findings constellation a lumbar puncture with determination of amyloid-β-, tau- and phospho-tau-proteins, PET imaging and if necessary further investigations are performed. Acetylcholineesteraseinhibitors as well as the NMDA-antagonist mematine allow symptomatic treatment of AD. The development of novel curative drugs is now showing considerable progress. After initially frustrating results, immunotherapies addressing amyloid-β pathology are now showing first positive effects when administered early in the disease course. First immunotherapies targeting tau pathology are furthermore reaching phase 2 and 3 trials, after hints of positive clinical effects in phase 1 trials. An additional set of more than 70 trials investigates non-immune mediated treatment strategies. Diagnostic advances include the development of amyloid-PET imaging, where after the amyloid-β-PET, tau-PET imaging is now reaching clinical implementation. In parallel to the technical advances in cerebrospinal fluid diagnostics, first blood-based biomarkers for AD are being developed.