科研之友
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摘要
First described by Alois Alzheimer in 1907, Alzheimer%26apos;s disease (AD) is the most common dementiatype, affecting approximately 20 million people worldwide. As the population is getting older, AD is agrowing health problem. AD is characterized by the presence of neuritic plaques containing the amyloidbetapeptide (Abeta) and an intraneuronal accumulation of tubule-associated protein called tau. Currentlyavailable treatment used in AD is based on acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, since in the course of ADthere is a substantial loss in cholinergic neurons. Another registered drug used in more severe AD is theNMDA antagonist-memantine. From a drug development point of view, some potential new ADtherapeutics include neuroprotective peptides that may act in a variety of different ways, e.g. they help tobreak the amyloid plaque formation, modulate peptide processing enzymes (secretases) or are able todegrade Abeta toxic peptide. In this review, we present an overview of the new classes of compounds inuse against AD.
