Vascular dementia and vascular cognitive impairment-current treatments and future prospects

Vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) and vascular dementia (VaD) represent a substantial and growing global health burden, yet remain under-recognized and comparatively under-researched. Two broad categories are post-stroke cognitive impairment, and VCI secondary to chronic cerebrovascular disease of which the most common cause is cerebral small vessel disease (SVD). In addition, cerebrovascular pathology frequently coexists with Alzheimer's disease (AD), increasing the probability that AD pathology will manifest as clinical dementia. Current management focuses primarily on prevention through modification of cardiovascular risk factors and lifestyle interventions. Intensive blood-pressure control has shown the strongest evidence, reducing future all-cause dementia while slowing progression of white-matter abnormalities. Multidomain lifestyle interventions incorporating exercise, diet, cognitive training, and vascular risk monitoring may also preserve cognition, although results across trials remain variable. In established VCI and VaD, treatment options are limited; cholinesterase inhibitors and memantine lack convincing evidence of benefit, and no pharmacological therapy has definitively demonstrated symptomatic improvement or delayed disease progression. Advances in understanding SVD and VCI pathophysiology are, however, identifying promising therapeutic targets. Emerging evidence highlights endothelial dysfunction, impaired cerebral autoregulation, increased blood-brain barrier permeability, inflammation, and glymphatic dysfunction as possible mechanisms underlying SVD. Current trials are evaluating treatment approaches based on this framework including cerebral vasodilators such as cilostazol, isosorbide mononitrate and phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors, anti-inflammatory therapies, glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, remote ischemic conditioning, and strategies targeting glymphatic function. Improved mechanistic understanding, appropriately targeted interventions, and adequately powered long-term clinical trials are required to translate these emerging approaches into effective treatments for VCI and VaD.