Progress on the Pathogenesis and Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease

Abstract

Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD), commonly known as senile demen-tia, is a neurodegenerative disease with clinical manifestations of memory impairment, personality and behavior changes. The pathogenesis of AD is complex and inconclusive in the point of view of western medicine, which is the fundamental reason for the lack of drugs that can reverse the course of the disease. People have gradually shifted from simple amyloid hypothesis to new pathogenesis theories, such as gamma oscillation, prion like transmission, and so on. As an effective means to treat AD, traditional Chinese medicine has made some research progress in recent years. This article mainly reviews the etiology, pathogenesis and treatment of AD, so as to provide reference for the prevention and treatment of AD. Methods: Through systematic literature research, comparison and analysis, the main pathogenesis, influencing fac-tors, progress and development tendency of traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine in the treatment of AD are presented. Results: Alzheimer’s disease is a kind of multiple neurodegenerative diseases. The pathogenesis and related targets of AD still need to be further explored. The main patho-logical phenomenon of AD is senile plaques formed by intracellular neurofi-brillary tangles and extracellular amyloid protein aggregation. Existing possi-ble pathogenesis includes β-amyloid cascade hypothesis, tau protein hypothe-sis, cholinergic hypothesis and so on. As the pathogenesis of AD has not been clarified, so far no effective therapeutic drugs or means have been found. The traditional drugs used to treat AD mainly include acetylcholinesterase inhi-bitor kabbalatin, galantamine, donepezil, and N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist memantine. However, although these marketed drugs can slow down the course of the disease and alleviate symptoms, they cannot totally cure the disease. Traditional Chinese medicine has the characteristics of per-sonalized differentiation and treatment. The Western medicine can accurately determine the lesion location and target. Conclusions: Integrated traditional Chinese medicine and West medicine is the most promising direction in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.