Alzheimer’s – An updated review on disease and its treatment

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of cognitive impairment in older patients and is expected to increase greatly in prevalence in the next future. An excess of senile plaques (h-amyloid protein) and neurofibrillary tangles (tau protein), ventricular enlargement, and cortical atrophy characterizes it. A cascade of pathophysiological events is triggered in AD that ultimately involves common cellular signaling pathways and leads to cellular and neural networks dysfunction, failure of neurotransmission, cell death and a common clinical outcome. A major focus of drug treatment for Alzheimer's disease is to improve cognitive abilities such as memory and thinking and slow the progression of these symptoms. Current treatments cannot cure or halt the disease, but can offer some people modest improvement in some symptoms. Countless new treatments are in development, so more options will be available in the near future. This article consists of a critical review of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), its epidemiology, patterns of care, prognostic factors, and symptomatic strategies available for treating AD and future strategies for improving our therapeutic approach to AD.