Basic Concepts, Hypotheses and Drug Development of Alzheimer's Disease

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that involves complicated pathogenesis and etiology that not entirely defined. As the most common form of dementia, AD is irreversibly progressive and aggravates, causing a great burden to global community. Meanwhile, the number of AD patients is growing annually with the global population aging. Unfortunately, there is currently no cure for the disease and the need for effective treatments of AD is urgent. Drug research and development for AD is a long-term and complicated process, which requires a deep understanding of the mechanisms of AD. At present, anti-Tau protein drugs as well as anti-inflammatory drugs are hot research topics. However, the clinical application of drugs still remains to improve various symptoms related to AD. This paper describes the basic concepts of pathology and gives an overview of the pathogenesis theories of AD, which include A hypothesis, Tau protein hyperphosphorylation theory, Cholinergic hypothesis and Inflammatory response. The final onset of AD is jointly caused by multiple mechanisms rather than a single one. In the paper, we summarizes the treatment strategies of AD and explores the status of drug development. This paper will help with understanding the causes of AD and provide insights into drug research and development for AD.