Understanding and treating Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) remains one of the most disabling health conditions in elderly population worldwide. The socio-economic burden of the disease is likely to increase due to increasing life expectancy. Increasing understanding of AD pathogenesis suggests heterogeneous nature of this disease, with number of underlying mechanisms operating simultaneously, contributing to the ultimate phenotype. Neuropathological hallmarks of AD include senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, neuronal atrophy and cortical neurodegeneration. There is currently no cure for AD and the available treatments can provide only a degree of symptomatic benefit to patients with mild-to-moderate AD. In this review, we focus on the current understanding of AD, available symptomatic treatments and potential disease modifying opportunities being pursued in the pharmaceutical industry as well as in academia © 2006 Springer.