Review On the Complications and Management of Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a disorder that causes degeneration of cells in the brain and is the leading cause of dementia, characterized by a decline in thinking and independence in personal daily activities. AD is considered a multifactorial disease: two main hypotheses have been proposed as the cause of AD, the cholinergic and the amyloid hypothesis. In addition, several risk factors such as increasing age, genetic factors, head injury, vascular disease, infection, and environmental factors play a role in the disease. Currently, there are only two classes of drugs approved for the treatment of AD, including cholinesterase enzyme inhibitors and Nmethyl D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonists, which are effective only in treating the symptoms of AD but do not cure or prevent the disease. Currently, research is focused on understanding the pathology of AD by targeting several mechanisms, such as abnormal tau protein metabolism, β-amyloid, inflammatory response, and cholinergic and free radical damage, in order to develop successful treatments that are able to stop or modify AD progress. This review discusses currently available drugs and future theories for the development of new AD therapies, such as disease-modifying therapeutics (DMTs), chaperones, and natural compounds.Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a disorder that causes degeneration of cells in the brain and is the leading cause of dementia, characterized by a decline in thinking and independence in personal daily activities. AD is considered a multifactorial disease: two main hypotheses have been proposed as the cause of AD, the cholinergic and the amyloid hypothesis. In addition, several risk factors such as increasing age, genetic factors, head injury, vascular disease, infection, and environmental factors play a role in the disease. Currently, there are only two classes of drugs approved for the treatment of AD, including cholinesterase enzyme inhibitors and Nmethyl D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonists, which are effective only in treating the symptoms of AD but do not cure or prevent the disease. Currently, research is focused on understanding the pathology of AD by targeting several mechanisms, such as abnormal tau protein metabolism, β-amyloid, inflammatory response, and cholinergic and free radical damage, in order to develop successful treatments that are able to stop or modify AD progress. This review discusses currently available drugs and future theories for the development of new AD therapies, such as disease-modifying therapeutics (DMTs), chaperones, and natural compounds.