title: Advances in recent patent and clinical trial drug development for Alzheimer's disease.
abstract: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease, involving a large number of genes, proteins and their complex interactions. Currently, no effective therapeutic agents are available to either stop or reverse the progression of this disease, likely due to its polygenic nature. The complicated pathophysiology of AD remains unresolved. Although it has been hypothesized that the amyloid β cascade and the hyper-phosphorylated tau protein may be primarily involved, other mechanisms, such as oxidative stress, deficiency of central cholinergic neurotransmitter, mitochondrial dysfunction and inflammation have also been implicated. The main focus of this review is to document current therapeutic agents in clinical trials and patented candidate compounds under development based on their main mechanisms of action. It also discusses the relationship between the recent understanding of key targets and the development of potential therapeutic agents for the treatment of AD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Computational Chemical Genomics Screening Center, School of Pharmacy, NIDA Center of Excellence for Computational Drug Abuse Research, Drug Discovery Institute, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA.
authors.forename: Haibin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Lirong
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Weiwei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Xiang-Qun
authors.initials: XQ
authors.lastname: Xie
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D053829:Amyloid Precursor Protein Secretases / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides / Q000187:drug effects*; D018678:Cholinergic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D055808:Drug Discovery; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000187:drug effects; D009414:Nerve Growth Factors / Q000187:drug effects; D010330:Patents as Topic; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors; D016875:tau Proteins / Q000187:drug effects*
chemical_list: D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides; D018678:Cholinergic Agents; D009414:Nerve Growth Factors; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate; D016875:tau Proteins; D053829:Amyloid Precursor Protein Secretases
keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; amyloid β (Aβ); patent; tau; therapeutic agents