Emerging amyloid and tau targeting treatments for Alzheimer’s disease

ABSTRACT

Introduction: With an ageing global population, the number of people with dementia, and its main cause Alzheimer’s disease (AD), is growing. current licensed treatments available for ad are only alleviate the symptoms of the disease, and are effective only in some people with ad for a limited time. there are currently no therapies that target the disease process.

Areas covered: This review summarizes the available treatments for AD and the emerging therapies in the clinical trials pipeline. There are ongoing trials at various stages of development, targeting different mechanisms and pathways implicated in the disease. This review focuses on amyloid and tau targeting drug candidates.

Expert commentary: Despite research efforts targeted at understanding AD, the underlying mechanisms and optimal treatment targets have not been fully elucidated. There is a significant need for further research targeting the disease at an earlier stage and progress in biomarker and imaging technology are improving the outlook. It is critical to continue research into identifying the underlying pathology and disease process in Alzheimer’s disease to enable development of effective targeted treatments.

KEYWORDS:

• Alzheimer’s disease
• amyloid
• tau
• therapeutics
• clinical trials
• BACE inhibitors
• gamma secretase
• Immunotherapy
• repositioned drugs

Declaration of interest

A. Corbett has received honoraria from Acadia. C. Ballard has received honoraria from Acadia, Lundbeck, Heptares, Roche and Lilly and research grant funding from Acadia during the last 12 months. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.