Alzheimer’s disease and its current treatments; Is there a possibility for a cure?

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an irreversible, progressive brain disorder that slowly destroys the memory and the thinking skills, and eventually the ability to carry out the simplest tasks. This has motivated lots of scientists to search for an ultimate treatment or cure for this serious disease. There are various causes & risk factors which cause AD and are the reasons for its progression. The drugs used in AD are usually a combination between different classes but never those of the same class such as Acetyl cholinesterase inhibitors which increase the availability of acetylcholine & NMDA receptors antagonists such as memantine. Most of the currently used drugs are mainly used to treat the symptoms, but lately some drugs have shown some promise in both treating & curing AD such as Aducanumab which is in the final phases of the clinical trials that resulted in the clearing of Amyloid plaques affecting cells communication. Since there are newly discovered causes of the disease, there are various other approaches in dealing with AD which will be discussed thoroughly in this review article.