Current challenges for the successful treatment and prevention of Alzheimer's disease: treating the pathologies of the disease to change its clinical course.
The need to develop meaningful therapeutics for Alzheimer's disease is beginning to reach the general awareness of the public. Matching this awareness is the accelerated pace of compounds entering clinical trials. In addition, the development of diagnostic tools, biomarkers, and imaging modalities of the past decade in AD have improved dramatically. Unfortunately, the use of these diagnostic and scientific tools in clinical trial practice has not yet aligned or optimized. Most agents still target clinical end points associated with mild to moderate AD rather than focus on modulation of the underlying pathologies. Although there are obvious practical reasons for this, meaningful progress in other areas of medicine such as cardiology and oncology have generally targeted and monitored improvement or abatement of pathology as the primary end point as a successful disease-modifying strategy. Perhaps it is time to consider a similar approach in treatment of Alzheimer's disease.
Schenk
Dale
D
Elan Pharmaceuticals, South San Francisco, CA, USA. Dale.Schenk@elan.com
D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000473:pathology*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D006801:Humans