Emerging paradigms in Alzheimer's therapy

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects elderly, and its incidence is continuously increasing across the globe. Unfortunately, despite decades of research, a complete cure for Alzheimer's disease continues to elude us. The current medications are mainly symptomatic and slow the disease progression but do not result in reversal of all disease pathologies. The growing body of knowledge on the factors responsible for the onset and progression of the disease has resulted in the identification of new targets that could be targeted for treatment of Alzheimer's disease. This has opened new vistas for treatment of Alzheimer's disease that have moved away from chemotherapeutic agents modulating a single target to biologics and combinations that acted on multiple targets thereby offering better therapeutic outcomes. This review discusses the emerging directions in therapeutic interventions against Alzheimer's disease highlighting their merits that promise to change the treatment paradigm and challenges that limit their clinical translation.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; Gene therapy; Immunotherapy; Neurotechnology; Photodynamic therapy; Small molecules.