Drug treatments in development for Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

New therapies are needed to combat the symptoms and underlying disease processes in the dementias. A rapid increase in our understanding of the risk factors for dementia and the underlying pathologies has not been matched with new effective therapies. In this review, potential new symptomatic and disease-modifying therapies will be described. Most are directed at modifying the amyloid cascade that seems to be the primary pathogenic feature of Alzheimer's disease, other targets include tau pathology, inflammation, neurogenesis and oxidative stress. Some of these therapies may be beneficial for other dementias. It is sobering that in 2012 we only have 4 drugs that are modestly effective for th..