Analysis of Alzheimer’s Disease: From Pathological Mechanism to Therapeutic Approach in Autophagy

Abstract

As a “non-curable” disease, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease in the aged population. Physical and mental pain exerts on every AD patient and their families. Even though there is no worldwide approved treatment against AD now, researchers have never given up on investigating and exploring potential approaches for curing AD. Gene therapy and drug treatment arise for alleviating AD symptoms. This paper illustrates the pathological mechanism of AD and focuses on the role of autophagy in AD pathology. Autophagy is a self-degrading mechanism to clear out dysfunctional cells; abnormal autophagy can directly trigger AD. This paper summarizes the effective and novel therapeutic approaches to treating AD by promoting autophagy activity, as well as AD diagnosis and assessment from early to severe stage, which provides promising approaches for researchers who are interested in AD treatments and feasible directions for science translational medicine.