title: Perspectives for treating Alzheimer's disease: a review on promising pharmacological substances.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Dementia is a syndrome characterized by functional and cognitive decline. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the most common causes of dementia and has high prevalence among the elderly. It is known that there is no drug capable of interfering with the course of the disease. Research on treatments for AD has been marked by the appearance of new drugs and their abandonment. This study aimed to describe drugs that have been studied with regard to treating AD and which are capable of influencing the course of the disease.
  
  
  METHODS
  Narrative review on original articles published worldwide.
  
  
  METHODS
  A systematized search was conducted in the PubMed/MEDLINE, Cochrane Library/Cochrane and SciELO/Bireme databases. The descriptors "Molecular Mechanisms of Pharmacological Action" and "Drug Therapy" were each combined with the descriptor "Alzheimer disease". All of these can be found in MeSH and DeCS. These descriptors were used alone or in combination, and a filter specifying publication between January 2009 and October 2015 in English, Spanish or Portuguese was set.
  
  
  RESULTS
  6,888 articles were found, of which 37 were included in this review; 70.3% of the articles selected were of good quality with low or unclear risk of bias. 86 drugs were considered promising for AD treatment and these were classified into 20 pharmacological categories.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There are no drugs capable of influencing the course of AD such that treatments are safe and effective. However, immunomodulators stood out as promising, given their effectiveness and quality in the articles analyzed.
authors.affiliation: MSc. Doctoral Student in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Maurílio de Souza
authors.initials: Mde S
authors.lastname: Cazarim
authors.affiliation: MSc, PhD. Associate professor (MS-5) in the Department of Internal Medicine, Ribeirão Preto Medical School, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Julio Cesar
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Moriguti
authors.affiliation: MSc, Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. Doctoral Student, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Ribeirão Preto Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Abayomi Tolulope
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Ogunjimi
authors.affiliation: MSc, PhD. Professor of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Leonardo Régis Leira
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Pereira
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000188:drug therapy*; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides / Q000187:drug effects; D000893:Anti-Inflammatory Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000975:Antioxidants / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002800:Cholinesterase Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides; D000893:Anti-Inflammatory Agents; D000975:Antioxidants; D002800:Cholinesterase Inhibitors