Pharmacotherapy of Alzheimer's disease: current and future trends

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and its related dementia has shown an alarming rise in the global population. Although considerable efforts have been made to develop effective therapeutic agents for AD therapy, drug development has not met significant clinical success. Current pharmacotherapy of AD is limited to cholinesterase inhibitors and the N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonist memantine. Considerable research is underway to develop newer agents for the management of AD. Since amyloid- (A) has been implicated in AD pathogenesis, the use of secretase inhibitors as well as immunotherapy against A has been investigated. A considerable effort has been spent investigating the therapeutic potential of antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents, several of natural products and dietary origin, in AD treatment. Numerous drug targets have also been investigated for AD treatment and a modest drug pipeline is available. Despite these efforts, drug development for AD has proved extremely difficult and most clinical trials have afforded disappointing results.