The Bombay Technologist

Alzheimer's Disease: Pathophysiology and towards Rational Drug Treatment

Suleman Hussain

Dept. of Pharmaceutical Science & Technology

Kishori Kedia

Dept. of Pharmaceutical Science & Technology

Keywords: MCI-Mild Cognitive Impairment, AD-Alzheimer‘s Disease, AB-Amyloid Beta, NT-Neurofibrillary Tangles.

---

Abstract

During the past two decades, one of the foremost challenges in health research was to understand better the cause(s) of AD for the development of safe and effective pharmacological treatments. However, irrespective of the form of therapy, the current approaches for the treatment of AD provide only temporary symptomatic relief, improve cognitive function, but do not slow the long-term progression of this disorder with several side effects. Moreover, these treatments have a modest effect on the progression of AD from Mild cognitive impairment, (MCI), to disabling dementia and death. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop strategies to improve the efficacy, the transport across the blood brain barrier (BBB), the bioavailability, and subsequently to limit the adverse effects of pharmaceutical compounds for the treatment of AD. Nanotechnology represents an expanding strategy in this regard and promises advances to the diagnosis and may provide a possible solution to overcome challenges for the treatment of AD. An overview of the state of the art of development of AD pharmacotherapy and novel nanomaterials that have potential to improve diagnosis and therapy of AD and have been tested in different experimental models for delivery of drugs will be discussed.