Advances in developing therapeutic strategies for Alzheimer's disease

Biomed Pharmacother. 2021 Jul:139:111623. doi: 10.1016/j.biopha.2021.111623. Epub 2021 Apr 26.

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive deterioration of brain function, initially characterized by cognitive deficits, with loss of recent memory and language ability, impairment of orientation, problem solving, and abstract thinking. While existing drug treatments help reduce the symptoms of AD and improve people's quality of life, they neither slow its progression nor cure it. Currently, targeted drug delivery to the central nervous system (CNS), for therapy of AD, is confined by the challenges posed by blood-brain interfaces surrounding the CNS, limiting the bioavailability of therapeutics. Among new strategies to overcome these limitations and successfully deliver drugs to the CNS, nanoparticles (NPs) are able to overcome these limitations, offering new therapeutic designations in term of driving drugs to cross the BBB and enter the brain more effectively. The current article aimed to summary and highlight advances in recent research on the development of nanotechnology-based therapeutics for their implications in therapy of AD.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; Aβ; CNS; Nanocarriers; Tau.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Alzheimer Disease / drug therapy*
  • Amyloid beta-Peptides / drug effects
  • Animals
  • Blood-Brain Barrier
  • Drug Delivery Systems
  • Humans
  • Nanotechnology
  • tau Proteins / drug effects

Substances

  • Amyloid beta-Peptides
  • MAPT protein, human
  • tau Proteins