THERAPY FOR ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE - CHOOSING A TARGET

There are two levels on which therapy for patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) can be approached. The first concerns attempts to develop drugs to alleviate the symptoms of the disease. Almost all of the ongoing drug trials fit into this category. The second level of treatments will be designed to alter the rate of progression of the disease, and perhaps even try to reverse some of the molecular and structural abnormalities. At neither level is it clear that we can identify the key features of AD that should be the prime target of therapeutic strategies. This article will review the major biochemical abnormalities reported to occur in patients with AD, and the relative merits of targeting drug development research to these.