Therapeutic agents for Alzheimer's disease

Won Hyuk Suh, Kenneth S. Suslick, Yoo Hun Suh

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

Abstract

Currently, a handful of FDA approved drugs are commercially available to treat Alzheimer's disease (AD). Among these, Tacrine (Cognex), Donepezil (Aricept), Rivastigmine (Exelon), Galantamine (Reminyl) and Memantine (Nemenda; Forest) are either acetylcholinesterase or N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonists. These are only palliative solutions, however, and side effects remain an important concern. Clearly, the search for more potent and effacious drugs for the treatment of AD is one of the most pressing pharmacological goals, and many more drugs are either in clinical trials or are being tested in laboratories around the world, both in academia and industry. In this review, we will compare the aforementioned five drugs with several other molecules that are currently in clinical trials or are ready to go into clinical trials. These will include antioxidants, metal chelators, monoamine oxidase inhibitors, anti-inflammatory drugs, as well as other AChE and NMDA inhibitors. In addition, medicinal chemistry approaches toward designing better pharmaceuticals will be discussed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)259-269
Number of pages11
JournalCurrent Medicinal Chemistry - Central Nervous System Agents
Volume5
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2005

Keywords

  • AD treatment
  • Alzheimer's disease
  • Computational chemistry
  • Drugs
  • Medicinal chemistry
  • Pharmaceuticals
  • Therapeutic agents
  • X-ray crystal structure

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Neuroscience
  • Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology
  • Molecular Medicine

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