New Drug Research and Development for Alzheimer’s Pathology: Present and Prospect

Cholinesterase inhibitors and N-methyl-D-aspartic receptor antagonists are currently the main treatments for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), targeting the clinical symptoms of AD. β-amyloid (Aβ) deposition and the highly-phosphorylated Tau protein-induced neurofibrillary tangles are some of the common pathological features of AD. In the past 20 years, many new drugs that focus on the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease have been assessed in clinical trials. Drugs such as β-amyloid monoclonal antibody and gamma-secretase inhibitor target the Aβ pathological pathway. New drugs targeting the Tau pathological pathway inhibit the generation of neurofibrillary tangles and the Tau protein antibodies. But until now, none of these drugs has brought a fundamental breakthrough. This initial breakthrough may come out of China as there are several groups here which already have disease-modifying drugs in phase II and phase III of clinical trials.